Love of a Jedi II
by DarthImperious
Summary: Takes place between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope
1. Chapter 1

**The Love of a Jedi II**

**Chapter One**

It has been five months since Order 66 went into effect, Naes had heard about a couple of other Jedi groups that had survived the initial events. In fact one group survived because their Clone Troopers refused to kill them and had instead helped them escape. Unfortunately they could not stay quiet and Darth Vader tracked them to Kashyyyk and killed them all. To top it off, because the Wookies had aided and abetted the fugitive Jedi the Empire burned part of the forest and enslaved a significant portion of the planet's population. Naes was astonished at how far Anakin had fallen. He had gone from famed Jedi Knight to the Emperor's dark enforcer. Naes knew that with the injuries Anakin had sustained in his duel against Obi Wan that he could take him in his current form. The problem was the Emperor. According to Master Yoda and from Naes's dreams, Sidious was an extremely powerful Force User; it would take an equally powerful Force User in their prime to face him; or a group of powerful Force Users, such as Mace, Naes, and a pre-fall Anakin. The next problem was that in order to reach Sidious you would need an army. Sneaking onto Coruscant was not the problem; the problem was storming the Imperial Palace.

Naes now understood his dream of years ago. At this point in order to defeat the Emperor one would have to not just study the Dark Side, they would have to become practitioners of it. And it could not just be one person but an entire group of them. The only way for them to remain undetected long enough to obtain enough mastery was to either go to Ziost or Korriban. He was not prepared to do that, such an action would still leave the galaxy in darkness; it would not balance the Force. But according to Master Yoda, Anakin's son Luke had the same Force Potential as his father. If that was the case, then when the boy grew up, he would be very powerful. Besides, it was nowhere near time to attempt to face the Emperor; the nascent Rebellion was still a disparate group. It would still be some years before they could be convinced to unite under the same banner. The way things were shaping up, the Rebellion would be hitting its peak of strength about the same time Luke reached adulthood. Because so much was riding on Luke, Naes had opted not know where he and Obi Wan were heading. Yoda was going to Dagobah and Bail was taking Anakin and Padme's daughter Leia to Alderaan with him, where she would be raised in the royal house.

Rhea and Ezriel had left two days ago, headed for Sullust. Naes and his family would be joining them in another couple of weeks. For now they would all stay close to each other, for mutual support and defense. Naes had some serious decisions to make, the first of which was should he inflict upon Astra the vagabond life? It was not fair to her that she be uprooted every few months and moved to another planet. To never get close to her neighbors, for fear that they would turn you in for Jedi sympathies. His next decision was in regards to Naes Jr and Amalie; they were both Force sensitive. The inhibitor that he put on them when they were born would eventually wear off; after that they would start to show signs of Force Sensitivity, especially in precognition, amazing hand eye coordination and remarkable reflexes. Should he train them to use their abilities or should they be taught to hide and fear their abilities, thus never using them or fulfilling their potential.

Naes wished that the vision he had of him and Anakin sitting on the Council could have come true, in that vision his children were living the life they should have had. The life they were meant to have, their parents together, learning the art of being a Jedi from their father. Naes knew that Rhea and Ezriel would help guide his children to being fine Jedi, if they stuck together. But as Master Yoda said, five Force Users together does create a beacon. Their best bet was to stay as far from Coruscant as possible. They would be heading to the Outer Rim soon, to live on the backwater planets. Out there the Emperor and Vader would be less likely to find them. There was a part of him that even considered going to Mandalore to hide, of course the only problem there was that there was no love lost between Mandalorians and Jedi. If the inhabitants even caught a whiff that he was a Jedi, he was as good as dead.

**A month later…**

Naes was walking along in the market in the capital of Sullust, when to his surprise he felt a tingle in the Force. That could only mean one thing; someone was actively drawing on and using the Force. Naes ducked into a dark alleyway where he could unobtrusively watch most of the happenings in the market. At the same time he opened himself up to the Force and cast his mind out upon the sea of people crowding the market; searching for who it was using the Force. Whoever it was, Naes could tell that their training was limited. Then he spotted her, a human woman in traveler's robes. Her attention seemed to be on the stall of a fruit vendor. Then Naes saw the reason why, a young man was attempting to steal some fruit from the vendor. Everytime he would pick one up to put it in his pocket, she would levitate it from his hand back to the appropriate basket. Much more and someone would start to notice and get suspicious.

Naes worked his way to where she was standing, she was so intent on what she was doing she never noticed when he came up beside her. "You know, there is a better way to prevent this particular type of crime. Let me show you." With that he walked up to the stall next to the youth and discretely waved his hand and whispered in the youth's ear, "You do not want to steal the fruit, you want to find an honest job and make something of your life."

The young man murmured, "I do not want to steal, I want to make something of my life", and then proceeded to walk away. Naes then picked up an armful of fruit and paid the vendor and walked back to woman in traveler's robes. He handed her a piece of fruit and said, "Walk with me a while, we need to talk." She fell into stride next to Naes as he continued, "My name is Naes, I saw what you were trying to do, your heart was in the right place, but it was extremely dangerous. Not just for you but for the entire planet, especially for my family and I." As she was walking beside Naes, he could tell a few things about her, her eyes were bluish green, with medium brown hair and she only stood a little over 1.64 meters. The strangest of all things was that even though he had never met her before, her Force Aura really seemed familiar, as if he knew her from somewhere before.

"My name is Tara, Tara Kolbon. You were the only one who even noticed what I was doing. Nobody else even saw a thing. By the way, what was that trick that you used to get him to stop?"

"True, no one else saw anything, I noticed because I could feel you using the Force. The trick that I used is called a Mind Trick; it is especially useful on the weak minded."

Understanding dawned upon her face, "You are a Jedi. Are you fully trained? Could you train me further?"

"Yes, I am a fully trained Jedi, Jedi Master Naes Nemelc at your service."

"I heard of you, you were called the Raiding Hero. My master spoke very highly of you."

"Your master? I can tell that you are close to me in age, you should have at least already undergone the Trials and been fully Knighted. The stranger thing is that I should know you from the Temple, I thought I knew everyone at the Temple in my age group."

"I never went to the Jedi Temple, I was born on Corellia and shortly after my birth, family moved and throughout my childhood they moved quite often. When I was twenty years old I was discovered by Callista Masana. I joined her and her group of Jedi and she began to train me. That is until her group joined in the fight against the Secessionists. I opted to remain here on Sullust."

"I knew of Callista, though by the strictest of standards her and her group were not Jedi per se, they were a splinter faction of the Jedi. It goes to show how badly the war was going that the Council was willing to overlook their more radical ideas and accepted their aid in the war. She disappeared about the time of the Purge, presumably when the Clones turned on their Jedi Generals; I have heard rumors that they were at Belsavis and have gone to ground there."

"What do you mean radical ideas?"

"A few of the high points, is the Altisian Jedi did not hold any loyalty to the Council nor did they follow its direction. Most prominently they felt that Jedi should be allowed to marry and have children, and live in family units; which according to the Code was forbidden. They allowed non Jedi to live in their group. They allowed Masters to take on more than one Padawan at a time. They moved around quite a bit, primarily serving as relief workers on underdeveloped and backwater planets. Their primary training facility was the Jedi Enclave on Bespin, though they would take students wherever they found them; such as in your case."

"Yes, I remember Master Djinn Altis saying once that he taught being good, doing good and asking good questions."

"That would just about sum up his views. I did not have the privilege of meeting either Djinn or Callista in person, only hearing about them by way of the grapevine as it were. As I was saying before, your heart is in the right place, but you must be more careful when using your powers, with the new Imperial edicts anyone suspected of being a Force Sensitive is immediately turned over to the Inquisitors. Trust me, you do not want to ever run across one of them or be left to their tender mercies."

"What are the Inquisitors?"

"Most of them are Dark Side adepts, trained by the Emperor to hunt down Force Sensitive's, though a rumor has it that a couple of them are former Jedi, I know for sure that one of them, Ferus Olin was a former Jedi, Master Kenobi though seems to trust him still. The job of an Inquisitor is to either convince you to work for the Emperor and further his agenda or kill you if you cannot be persuaded to assist the Empire. They are all under scrutiny by the Grand Inquisitor, and he in turn answers to Darth Vader. But they report directly to Emperor Palpatine."

"Does not sound like a very nice group of people. How can I avoid meeting them?"

"The simplest and easiest answer is 'Do not use the Force.' In fact, your presence here on Sullust presents a problem."

"What do you mean?"

"The more Force Users you have together in one place, they will naturally create a larger beacon. It is not done intentionally. Picture a single candle. Seen from a distance, it is hard to see. Now however, picture several candles sitting next to each other, from a distance their light is easier to see; same basic principle. Together now, on the one planet is six Force Users. Plus, training you how to use the Force requires practice, a developing Jedi would draw the Emperor's and Vader's attention even faster. The more you learn, the brighter your individual light would be. I will tell you the same thing that Master Yoda told all the younglings when they first started their training. It applies equally as well to you as it would to them. Being a Jedi requires the utmost of commitments. It is not to be entered into lightly. I will teach you what I can, so that you can strengthen yourself and hopefully if you are ever tracked down by an Inquisitor you will be able to resist them. You are at a critical time in your training; you are on the cusp of learning so much more. This is the stage where the quick and easy path of the Dark Side is so alluring. As much darkness as there is in the galaxy, it could use some extra light. I will train you more, but we cannot train here on Sullust, too great a danger here."

"Where will you train me then? And when do we leave?"

"How quickly can you get your affairs in order? It will take me a few days to get things straight on my end. Meet me at Docking Bay 329 at the auxiliary spaceport in one week at 8am." With that, Naes and Tara went their separate ways. Naes going home to talk to his wife; how was he going to explain to her that after only a week on the planet he was going to leave and be gone for a few months? He knew that there was a habitable planet the next system over from Ziost, that close to a world of the Sith would help hide their light. Naes Jr was only four and a half yrs old, but it would be beneficial for him to get some training in at that age. Teach him basic telekinesis and precognition. Help him learn how to open himself up to the Force. He really felt that the Force was trying to tell him to train Tara, why he did not know. It was something that he would have to meditate upon. Either way, once he trained her, she would be able to take care of herself a lot better then. That meant that he could let her scatter out away from his band and not be overly concerned about her safety. And you never knew, she herself might run across a Force Sensitive that she could teach, helping to insure that the light of the Jedi was never truly extinguished.

When Naes got back home from the market, Astra was still at work, she worked in a local clinic as a healer. It was a far cry from having a private practice on Coruscant. Naes worked as a free lance systems programmer. His skill with computers still unmatched, the job also allowed him to stay home and spend time with his two children. Rhea was getting ready to leave for her job as security for an industrial section of town. Naes decided that he would talk to Rhea about meeting Tara, get her input first, before talking to Astra. "Rhea, before you leave, I need to talk to you about something."

"Sure, what is it?"

"While I was at the market, I ran across a Force Sensitive that had received basic training from Callista Masana. Her skills are rudimentary, basic telekinesis but not much more it would appear. I have made arrangements to meet her next week, the idea being that we will go to the habitable planet one system over from Ziost where the darkness can hide her training. I would prefer for either you or Ezriel to stay here with Astra, the other can join me and Tara and Naes Jr. I want to take the time there to let him get some training in."

"You mean Thule, the former Sith stronghold. I will stay here with Astra and Amalie, you, Ezriel and Naes Jr. can go and get some training in with Tara, be careful. You know that this could be a trap."

"Yes, I am referring to Thule. I am aware that it could be a trap; I gave her the wrong docking bay number to meet me at." Naes smiled at the small subterfuge, "it will allow me to arrive early and check things out before hand. In this day and age one cannot be too careful. One does not want to have a chance meeting with the Inquisitors. Besides, with me and Ezriel gone for a few months training, in the long run it allows us to stay here on Sullust longer. If people ask where we are, tell them that Ezriel and I are traveling on business."

"You know Astra is going to miss you and object to you being gone with a strange woman for months. If I were married to you and did not know you previously as a Jedi, I would."

"Yes I know that is part of the reason that I am taking Naes Jr. and Ezriel. She will object but with Ezriel coming and little Naes, I am hoping not as much."

Later that afternoon Astra came home. "Hello dear, how are you doing? How was the clinic?"

"Not too bad, today was a relatively slow day at the clinic, how has your day been."

"I am glad that you asked, in the market I ran into a relatively untrained Force Sensitive; she had received some basic training late in life. I have made arrangements to train her further."

"What? I thought you said that it was too dangerous to train here on Sullust."

"Sullust yes, there is a habitable planet fairly close to Ziost, one of the Sith worlds, and it itself is a former Sith stronghold, the name of the planet is Thule. That close to Ziost several Force Sensitives could train and not be detected that close to a source of darkness. If you don't mind, my plan is for Ezriel, Naes Jr. and myself to take Tara there and train for a few months."

"And what about Amalie and myself?"

"Rhea will stay here with you and Amalie, help protect the two of you, if anyone asks, tell them that I have taken Ezriel traveling with me on business. The girls name is Tara Kolbon, also with us away; that means that you can stay on Sullust for quite a while longer; with just two Force Sensitives on the planet, less of a chance to draw attention. You and Amalie are welcome to come and visit us anytime that you want. This will also give me a chance to give Ezriel more training and start training Naes in the basics. This also means that with Tara trained; she can scatter out away from us and take care of herself."

"I don't like it, actually I hate it. But I can see that you are determined to go. When do you leave and how long will you be gone? And what if it is a trap?"

"Yes I know I completely understand you not liking it; I don't like it either. I want you to know that I love you dearly. I am not doing this lightly; I would much rather not have to leave you; this is something that I feel I must do. The Force is telling me to train Tara for some reason. If there were any way that I could train here on Sullust, I would. Don't worry; I have already taken measures just in case it is a trap. I will leave in a week, and figure at least four months away, it may be longer. It all depends on how much Tara already knows and how quickly she picks things up."

Astra sighed, looked at him and said, "Very well, just do me a one favor."

"Anything for you, I love you more than anything else in the galaxy."

"Return to me safely, and start training our son to be as good a Jedi as his father."

"You got it." With that, Naes drew Astra into his arms and held her there for the longest time, to the point that it seemed time itself stood still.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Love of a Jedi II**

**Chapter Two**

A week had passed since Naes first met Tara; he was still trying to figure out where it was he had run across her before. Her aura was so familiar that he was positive he had seen it before. It was nearly 8am and he was in hiding with his eye on Docking Bay 329, waiting for Tara to come and find out if she was in fact trying to lay a trap for him. Ezriel and Naes Jr. were waiting in the Maverick in Bay 115. There appeared to be no sign of Imperials. Naes had been around the clones enough to know their distinctive feel in the Force and he did not feel any nearby. He opened himself to the Force, searching for any feelings of danger or even anticipation of violence. There was nothing of the sort showing up in the vicinity. Naes then took into consideration the possibility that someone might have bugs planted in the vicinity of the bay. He searched with the Force for anything anomalous in his vicinity, still nothing.

Then, Tara appeared, looking at the docking bay, looking for Naes but not seeing him from his vantage point. He used the Force to check on her emotional state. His basic brushing against her caused a surge of alarm within her, then without conscious thought her mental shields sprang up. If he was going to get any more information from her, he was going to have to open himself up to the Force more and risk her detecting him. It was apparent that as rudimentary as her training had been, she had a degree of talent for some of the more mental aspects of the Force. She apparently had a strong connection to the Force. As Naes opened himself up to the Force more, he brushed her mind. Just as he brushed her mind, her eyes immediately focused on where he was hidden, as if she could see him.

Naes knew then that stealth was no longer an option, so he came out from hiding. "I apologize for the subterfuge, but I needed to make sure that you were not laying a trap for me." As he was looking at her, he brushed her mind once more. This time their eyes locked onto each other. That is when he suddenly knew where he had seen her. In his dream where he had faced Vader and the Emperor, he had been married to a Force Sensitive that had taken the name Darth Tempus. Though in the dream he had been with her a short period of time, he had gotten the sense of her aura and that they were happy together. He had never tried to figure out what had happened to Astra in the dream, as at the time of the dream they were not married. He had never really been concerned as to the identities of his compatriots that had helped him overthrow the Sith Lord in his dream. He had been more concerned about the possibility of him turning to the Dark Side.

"That is quite alright, I completely understand. So where we do really go?"

"Follow me." With that he led her on a circuitous route to the Maverick. He wanted to make sure that there was no chance of them accidently having a tail. They turned back on their path, passed Bay 115, and the whole time Naes had himself open to the Force for any hints of danger. After about 30min, he could tell that Tara was getting tired.

"Do you really have a ship and are you really planning to leave and train me? Or are you just wondering around the Docking Bays?"

"Trust me, we are leaving, I wanted to be sure that neither of us had an unknown tail." With that they turned the corner and walked into Bay 115, "May I present the Maverick." Naes proceeded to walk up the ramp leading into the ship, Tara following him. "Ezriel I would like you to meet Tara, Tara the copilot is my Padawan Ezriel. And the little fellow in the restraint seat is my son, Naes Jr. They will be joining us for training. If you would please go ahead and strap in Tara, we will get started." Naes sat down in the pilot's seat and said, "Ezriel would you please get launch clearance and take us up. By the book, please. No need to draw attention to ourselves."

"Once we are clear, what course do you want me to set?"

"Go ahead and pull up the navicomputer and set a course for Korriban. Our ultimate destination is Thule, a short jump from Korriban."

"Thule, isn't that where the Dark Reaper was hidden?"

"Yes it is, a former Sith stronghold, it should be safe enough, officially it is uninhabited, but there are probably a few unofficial scattered settlements. It should be easy enough to avoid them. The planetary climate is semi arid, with wide swaths of savannah grasslands along with several mountain chains that can be rather forbidding. We should be able to find an abandoned fortress somewhere on the planet. That close to Korriban and Ziost it should be relatively easy to hide. It is very doubtful that Vader or the Emperor will see our light."

"True; and the planet is not bathed in darkness like Korriban or Ziost.

"Excellent deduction, once you have mastered yourself, then you would be ready for the trials."

"Will I ever be Knighted?"

"Ezriel, what does it matter, the Jedi Order is no more. Only two council members are known to be alive. The Jedi for all intents are extinct, what is left of us is scattered and hiding lest we draw attention to ourselves like the group did on Kashyyyk. But tell you what, I promise that I will complete your education as best I can. When that happens, I will Knight you. Sometimes we forget that symbols can be important as well. For generations, the Jedi Order stood as a symbol of the Republic. In fact, there are many that remember what the Order stood for and would be glad to assist the Jedi. Now is not that time. So what do you say we head for Thule?"

**About a week later…**

The Maverick dropped out of hyperspace appearing just ahead was the planet Thule. The trip had been uneventful, just the way Naes liked his hyperspace trips to be. The planet was green and brown. Naes started running scans for any population centers that would show up. At the same time, he wanted to compare the settlement locations with his map of known fortresses; specifically those that would have a courtyard large enough to land the Maverick in, yet not too close to a settlement. For training purposes, they would need their privacy. No need for prying eyes to see Jedi training; that would bring down the wrath of the Empire in no time.

There, at the foothills of a mountain range in the northern mid latitudes, a fortress with a ready supply of water and a large courtyard inside the keep. At that latitude, the weather should be bearable. The walls appeared to be some twenty meters tall and a good two meters thick, everything appeared to be composed of a black basaltic type of rock. The walls would aid in protection, against prying eyes, against any unexpected visitors and against any windstorms. Windstorms were a known problem on the planet.

**A month later…**

Tara was progressing very nicely in her training. Ezriel due to his lack of practice in six months had gotten rusty; thankfully the rust came off within a couple of weeks and he was progressing very well. Due to anticipated needs, Naes decided that he would concentrate on subtle nuances and uses of the Force and the more physical training aspects. He taught Tara various forms of unarmed combat, and gave her training with a lightsaber. A trip to Ilum to construct her own lightsaber was out of the question. Plus the Emperor had placed under strict quarantine any and all trade in Adegan, Corusca, Ilum and other crystals that could be used in lightsaber construction; and he had razed Ilum and other locations where Jedi had traditionally gathered their crystals, of course it was against the law now for one to even activate a lightsaber unless you were part of the Imperial Order. It was not unheard of for a Jedi to use a synthetic crystal in their lightsaber construction. Naes did not have the necessary equipment to create a synthetic crystal. It would not be that difficult to procure a high pressure oven, in order to create a synthetic crystal.

Thinking about making lightsabers brought to Naes mind his trip to Ilum with Master Salgoud. The first challenge was scaling the slopes that led to the ice caves. He had barely avoided running afoul a nest of Gorgodons, a black furred creature with three rows of sharp teeth that stood nearly 2.5 meters. A few of these creatures seemed to have made a nest at the entrance to the Jedi Temple, forcing most younglings to face them in order to reach the cave system. Then once inside the caves, for some younglings the visions they had could be rather troubling. Naes had heard that during his sojourn in the cave that Anakin had faced the "ghost" of Darth Maul. For any thirteen year old that would be a troubling vision. Naes in his vision in the cave had seen the galaxy bathed in darkness and the Jedi Temple in flames. For a child that had never known any other home but the Jedi Temple, that was a horrifying vision. Unfortunately that particular vision had come to pass. Though, by that time for Naes, home was wherever Astra and his children were. The Jedi Order meant a great deal to him, as did the freedom of the galaxy, but for Naes his family was Astra and his children, and thus they were his primary concern.

He finally snapped out of his revelry, and watched Tara and Ezriel sparring with each other, he had loaned Tara his lightsaber to spar against Ezriel. His practiced eye could tell that Ezriel was holding back, partly to allow Tara to learn and not become disheartened. He also knew Ezriel well enough to know that in an actual combat situation he would not hold back but rather he would give his all. Later in the afternoon Naes and Ezriel would spar with each other, which would act as a training session for Ezriel and allow Naes to remain sharp and proficient with a lightsaber. Naes then knew that he would need to check into acquiring a small industrial high pressure oven.

Later that night, Naes made his weekly call to Sullust to talk with Astra and the kids. After catching up with his family he asked to speak with Rhea as well. "Rhea, I will be coming back to Sullust in a few days, I have already told Astra. What I need for you to do is check into acquiring a small industrial high pressure oven suitable for growing crystals that could fit in the cargo hold of the Maverick, as well as a portable generator to supply power to it. We will want to acquire the oven covertly, in such a way as not to lead back to us. I don't care how it is done; we just need to do it."

"Sure thing Naes; I will start looking into that for you."

After signing off, he went to where Tara and Ezriel were, they were finishing up cleaning up after the evening meal. "I want you both to know that I will be leaving tomorrow morning for a few days. I am not sure how long I will be gone. After much consideration I have decided that for Tara's own safety and training that I will teach her how to construct her own lightsaber. As well as get more supplies for us."

Tara stood and bowed and said, "Thank you Master Nemelc, I will strive to meet and exceed your expectations in me as a student."

"I know that you will, until I return, I want the two of you to stay here in the fortress and continue practicing. Though, for just in case I am taking my lightsaber with me. Ezriel, we should have enough components here already that you may help Tara begin constructing a case for the lightsaber, I will be sure and pick up a power supply for the saber, as well as materials needed to grow a synthetic crystal."

Ezriel spoke up, "But Master, only Sith use synthetic crystals. Jedi have always favored using natural crystals."

"That was the case before, first keep in mind that obtaining a natural crystal is nearly impossible with the restrictions Palpatine has placed on their trade. Second, were we to obtain a natural crystal, it would undoubtedly draw attention to us, attention that we cannot afford to have directed towards us. Three, there is nothing inherently wrong or in the Code against using synthetic crystals, tradition has been the primary reason for using natural crystals. I don't think there is anything wrong with using a synthetic crystal. Besides, strictly speaking, it is against the Code for me to take Tara as a Padawan while I am still training you. Plus it would be against the Code for me to train her at such an advanced age. Remember the Code called for taking infants and toddlers to be raised in the crèche until they were taken as a Padawan if they were not chosen as someone's Padawan by the age of thirteen, they were sent to one of the Jedi Agriworlds. I understand wanting to continue to abide by the Code, for the foreseeable future we will have to be more flexible and pragmatic. For instance, we cannot go around waving our lightsabers can we, not even to prevent an injustice. For our safety we will continue to fight the darkness of the Sith, but in a more subtle and confined manner."

Ezriel nodded his head, "Yes master, I understand. Sometimes it is just hard for me to remember those things."

"I understand Ezriel, it will take time but you will learn to be more pragmatic. I would never ask you to do anything that did not in the long run serve the interests of the Light, the galaxy or the Force. It is time for us to turn in; we all have a busy day tomorrow. While I am away, perhaps you could teach Tara a couple of kata's and help her hone some of her other Force abilities."

"Sure thing master, we can do that."

That night Naes dreamed of Padme, specifically the time that he saved her the from the attack by the Trade Federation during the Clone Wars, except this time in addition to the two of them getting lost in conversation with each other, when they got to the guest quarters, Naes stepped in and the two of them kissed each other. With that, he awoke and knew that he really needed to spend more time with his wife. He would take a few extra days and spend just with her. Make sure that they had some alone time together. True there was a part of him that would always care for Padme, but Astra was his wife, she was the one that he truly loved.

The next morning Naes got up and ate some breakfast with Ezriel and Tara. Afterwards, he helped them clean up and went to the Maverick and took off for Sullust. Once he arrived on Sullust a few days later he immediately went to the house that he and Astra had gotten. Rhea was there with the two kids; he scooped Naes and Amalie up into his arms and hugged them. Naes did not realize until just then how much he really and truly missed his children.

"Did you have a chance to look into a small high pressure industrial oven that could be run on a small generator?"

"I have checked here on Sullust, nothing that we could get a hold of discretely. I have put a couple calls in with Bail Organa, Mon Mothma, and Garm Bel Iblis. I figure as Senators that you trusted and dealt with the most, after Senator Amidala that is, that they would have access to resources that we did not."

"I hope that you used a scrambler when calling them."

"A scrambler and I bounced the signal through several nodes, it would be nearly impossible to trace the signal much less decrypt it. I knew that those would be Senators that Palpatine would have under scrutiny and surveillance. You realize of course that by asking them a favor, they will expect help in return."

"Yes, I know that, I don't want Palpatine to know exactly how many Jedi are still out there, we start waving our lightsabers around anywhere and we are inviting trouble, no matter where it is we wave them. As long as we stay quiet, Palpatine and Vader will have less incentive to track us. Though I am tempted to make a small trip to Coruscant and amend casualty records showing that we died the night of the assault on the Temple. Let them know that we are not ready yet to offer our services in any raids against Imperial installations. Any Force Sensitives that they might run across you and I are more than willing to train them. Also, explain to them that the oven and any compact high efficiency power supplies they aid us in acquiring can be used to help said Force Sensitives construct a lightsaber, but to properly construct a lightsaber requires a Force Sensitive. In a few years, we can start going out on covert missions for them, you and I can train any soldiers they have. Ezriel and I can help train their pilots."

"I guess that will have to do for now."

"Help them understand that right now, the mere thought of a Jedi surviving Order 66 will draw the full attention of Palpatine and Vader. It will alert them to the fact that the nascent Rebellion is stronger and better organized than originally believed. For the next few years we lay low, build our strength, our intelligence network, start building a supply network, all of those things that we will need when we openly reveal the Rebellion to the Empire. Once we reveal ourselves, we are basically declaring war on the Empire. Mon Mothma and Bail Organa are politicians; they will have an important role to play, right now though we need soldiers. They can provide the covert support that will be needed; they can help garner support throughout the galaxy. Bel Iblis has served in the military, he knows what is needed right now. I just hope that we can keep him in check for a few years, he is Corellian and you know how hot headed they can be sometimes; though he is a shrewd political operator."

"As soon as I hear from one of them, I will let you know. What are your plans?"

"I want to spend a couple days just me and Astra, spend time with the kids, and maybe do a couple of free lance jobs while I am here. I will probably need to travel to pick up the oven, generator and power supplies. And pick up more supplies for the encampment on Thule. Could you do me and Astra a favor, and watch the kids and let she and I get a weekend away, just us."

"Sure, no problem; you guys have fun."


	3. Chapter 3

**The Love of a Jedi II**

**Chapter Three**

As Naes was sleeping, he dreamed of the time that he had saved Padme from the Trade Federation. She was getting ready to leave the Redoubt, when Naes ran into her in the hallway. Just hours earlier, without even thinking about it they both had allowed themselves to be side tracked, walking hand in hand with their fingers interlocked. Now as she was getting ready to leave in her skiff, they run into each other once more. Naes dismissed the Clone Troopers from escorting the Senator, he and Padme exchanging pleasantries, the whole time that they were talking with each other, her brown eyes were locked on his, giving the impression that whatever he had to say was the absolutely most important thing to her at that point in time. Then, as he had to continue with his business as Commander and she had to get to her skiff, they reluctantly began to part. Both of them reaching for the other, and yet not quite touching. Their hands close enough that they could practically feel the others warmth. They both slowly withdrew their hands and went on with their respective business.

Naes then awoke with a start, sitting up. He looked over to his side and his heart melted; there sound asleep oblivious to his disturbed sleep was his wife, the mother of his children, and his soul mate, Astra. In spite of the chemistry he had with Padme, Astra was the one that he loved with all of his heart. He got out of bed, being careful so as not to disturb Astra; he looked over at the chrono and did the time conversions to get what time it was in Corellia City. It had been a week since his return, Bail and Mon Mothma did not have what Naes needed. Garm Bel Iblis as Rhea had predicted wanted some assistance on a couple of covert ops. Nothing major, just a couple of supply dumps, a raid against a couple of storage yard; what worried Naes the most was that Garm wanted to steal a handful of Providence class battleships. These battleships of the former Trade Federation were being decommissioned everywhere. Garm felt it was a perfect time to grab a few and hide them in out of the way locations where the Imperials would never look for them.

When he first heard what Garm wanted, Naes outright refused to help. He felt it was too dangerous to do that. However, over the past couple of days he had been thinking about it, and decided that the danger could be managed. According to his calculations, Garm would be in his office. Naes opened up his computer, set up his scrambler protocols, and proceeded to bounce his signal over half the galaxy before getting to Corellia. Just then the image of Garm Bel Iblis appeared on the screen, "Jedi Knight Naes Nemelc, so good to hear from you directly. What can I do for you?"

"Senator, I have reconsidered your offer. I will assist you in acquiring those Providence class ships that you have your eye on. I need a few things from you first, first I will need an unregistered old style Republic Cruiser, up-armed and I will need the oven and industrial generator that I inquired about earlier. If you could arrange to have those delivered to Sullust within the next few days, it would be greatly appreciated."

"You are asking for quite a lot, what do I get in return, other than your assistance in acquiring those ships?"

"You will have one of the best star pilots in the galaxy to help train your pilots. The only other pilot that was in my league was Anakin Skywalker. However, my Padawan, Ezriel is probably in the Top 10 pilots today. Moreover, I taught him everything that he knows, but not everything I know."

"And what of Vader, are you a better pilot than he is? I have seen reports, what he can do in a starfighter, I have only seen very accomplished Jedi do."

Naes smiled to himself, from Garm's comment he did not know who Vader really was. "Senator, I am probably the only person alive that could equal or exceed Vader in a cockpit."

That was probably a bit of a stretch, Anakin's son Luke was alive and according to Master Yoda, appeared to have the same Force Potential as Anakin, the question was did Luke have his father's talent for piloting? Hard to say, he was not even a year old yet. Naes Jr was nearly as strong as Naes himself in the Force, and he appeared to have his father's love of flight. His current favorite toy was a model of the ARC 170 Heavy Reconnaissance Fighter; the few times Naes has allowed him to sit upfront in the cockpit of the Maverick, little Naes wanted to fly the small freighter.

Garm looked at Naes, his eyes narrowed, "I think that you are exaggerating your skills my young Jedi."

Naes returned the look and said, "Senator I never exaggerate my abilities. I was one of the best pilots in the galaxy during the Clone Wars, look at my battle record. Remember that the Knight combo of Nemelc/Sirgon was the second most effective command combo, nearly equaling the combo of Kenobi/Skywalker. As I was saying, I will help train your pilots, though I know that as Corellians they are practically born in a cockpit. I will help acquire the ships that you are looking at, and either Rhea or I will help you with a handful of raids. However, you need to understand that I have civilians dependent upon me, that we need to be careful, the longer Palpatine and Vader believe the Jedi are extinct the better. The second someone uses a lightsaber with any sort of skill is when Palpatine and Vader will come down on everyone like a ton of bricks. This endeavor of ours needs to remain very secret, very low key and very hush-hush. I assure you that you are nowhere near strong enough to challenge the entire galaxy. Gather your strength and material; let the Emperor run roughshod over the galaxy for a few years. Right now, everyone is happy with the Empire, they feel that they finally have some security, let a few atrocities occur and come to light, let people see the truth about things and the discontent will spread. Don't you see, the more the Imperial hierarchy tightens its grip on things, the more people and systems it will lose?"

Garm looked at Naes, his eyes brightening as he began to understand things. "You are correct Master Nemelc, as you know, we Corellians are a very independent people, and it chafes so much to see Imperial Stormtroopers marching through the streets with impunity. To know that there is nothing that I can do to rid myself of this heavy yoke upon my neck."

"I understand Senator, I really do. I hate hiding who I am and what I can do. For me using the Force came as naturally as breathing. I hate having to hide in order to protect those that are dependent upon me. There is so much that I could do to serve and help a galaxy in need. For the greater good, for now we remain hidden. I have already found one Force Sensitive, I have already spoken to Senators Mon Mothma and Bail Organa, and I will reiterate to you, if you come across any Force Sensitives please let me know. I can start training them as Jedi, to help overthrow the Empire. Palpatine is not just a shrewd politician; he is in fact the Sith Lord the Jedi Council had been looking for. He was so good at disguising what he really was that he fooled everyone around him. In the long run it will take a trained group of Jedi strong in the Force to defeat Palpatine and Vader both."

"If you say so Master Nemelc; for now I will bow to your wisdom."

"Thank you, as soon as the things have been delivered, I will meet you on Corellia and we can discuss a more detailed strategy of how we will acquire the ships you want. Nemelc out." With that the screen went dark, Naes leaned back in his chair and sighed and ran his hands up and over his head and through his hair. As much as he might desire a nice quiet life with Astra, that would not happen. Both of his children needed training as Jedi, Tara needed more training, there were still some things that Ezriel had to learn. Just then, Astra stepped behind him and wrapped her arms around his chest.

"Are things really that bad dear? Or is it that after a week you have grown tired of me?"

Naes knew he must be tired, he never sensed Astra awaking or being nearby. "Astra dearest, I know that we have never really had that much time together, my Jedi duties kept us apart and the war just made things even worse. It has only been after our exile that we have had the time for each other. And then I go off to train someone new for a month. Sometimes, I feel as if I have the weight of the entire galaxy on my shoulders; protecting you and the kids, trying to keep a low profile as a member of a discredited and sanctioned order. I am trying to fulfill my charge as a Jedi to be a guardian of justice. In addition, while I am trying to maintain a low profile, there is the desire to strike back against my enemies, to destroy the Sith and lay the foundations for a meaningful Rebellion against the evils of the Empire and to restore the Republic."

"You know how to contact Master Yoda, contact him, and consult with him as to your next course of action. Remember even the Jedi had an entire Council to decide the fate of the galaxy."

Naes reached up to hold Astra's arm, "Astra dearest, please know that you and the kids are always my primary focus. My hope is that if I can help get things set up with the Rebellion, maybe get a few Force Sensitives trained to resist the darkness and to fight the Emperor, then Palpatine and Vader will be so busy and so focused on those larger issues, that they will forget about smaller problems." He then got up out of his chair, and said "Come on, let's go back to bed. There is nothing better than having you next to me, it seems to make the problems and worries of the galaxy go away."

The next morning when Rhea got home from work Naes told her, "In a few days a ship from Senator Garm Bel Iblis will arrive, an old style Republic cruiser that has been up armed. I will create a few fake ID's for it. The ship will be carrying the industrial oven and generator that we need. When it arrives, I need you to load the oven and generator and the other supplies onto the Maverick and deliver them to Ezriel and Tara on Thule and come back here to Sullust."

"What about you, what are you going to be doing?"

"Once I have a handful of fake ID's created for the ship, I will take it to Corellia and assist Senator Bel Iblis with acquiring a few Providence class ships. And I will start training a handful of pilots that he has. Then I will head back to Thule."

"How long will you be gone?"

"I expect my time with the Senator to last a few weeks, at the most a month. Remember that these are Corellian pilots; that means they have been behind the controls of a ship since they were toddlers. You couple that with typical Corellian arrogance and aggression, and you have the makings of very good pilots. I expect to only need to teach them a few basic battle tactics, create a progressive sim for them to practice on, and probably instill some basic discipline." Naes looked at Rhea, she looked at him, and they both laughed. "You know, maybe I won't worry so much about instilling basic discipline. I also told Garm either of us would assist with a few raids as well."

Rhea looked a little concerned, "What about the kids, remember that I help Astra with the kids while she is working."

"For a few days, unfortunately she will need to make alternative arrangements. I will talk to her about doing that. When you drop off the supplies at Thule, please spend no more than a day there, enough to unload, show Ezriel or Tara the basics for the industrial oven and generator, and maybe give them both a couple of pointers in saber combat. Also, stress to Tara that she is not to make a saber of her own until after I get back to help her. I don't need them blowing themselves or the oven apart, until I get back to supervise."

"Remember Naes, Tara is our age."

"Yes she is, but she and Ezriel neither one know the finer details and points of making one's own lightsaber. Ezriel has only constructed the one and he has never tinkered with it that much. You have constructed a few, as have I. But I also have a tendency to tinker with mine, almost on a continuous basis."

Rhea looked at Naes, "Oh yes, I remember those days. You and Anakin would both lock yourselves in the tool shop for days on end, trying different combinations and fine tuning adjustments. That is when you were at the Temple."

"Or I was in the computer vault, tinkering with the hardware and software. When I was busy doing that, Anakin was busy tinkering with that R2 unit he had. Almost treated it like a friend and not a droid. One other thing, if you do contact Garm, only use my computer in the study, it has been modified to make the comms originating from it nearly untraceable."

Three days later, Naes and Rhea were waiting in just outside Docking Bay 347 with a hoversled; they had already bought and stored on the Maverick the other supplies needed for Ezriel and Tara on Thule, just awaiting the cargo delivery and ship from Garm Bel Iblis. Just then an old style of Republic Cruiser appeared, unlike its early brethren this one was not painted purple, the color of peace in the Republic. This ship was painted basic Imperial silver, like all other ships. Naes always thought the term Republic Cruiser was a bit of misnomer, even in its heyday fifteen years ago, the ship was under gunned; its primary purpose was as a courier for dignitaries and cargo. That was alright; Naes wanted the ship for its speed and commonality. The Empire was dumping all of those old style ships anyway; they were common sights now.

The ship landed in the docking bay, and a crew stepped out and cautiously looked around. Naes stepped forward saying one single word, "Nightfall".

The captain took one more cautious look around and said, "Dawn of a new day".

"Yes, I am Naes. We will help you unload the cargo that you have brought us." With that, Naes and Rhea got the oven and the generator unloaded quickly and Rhea headed for the Maverick. Naes stayed at the cruiser. "Captain, if you don't mind, would you give me a tour of the ship?"

"Sure thing sir." The two walked up the ramp, with Naes carrying a small carryon duffle. "This way is the engine control room; the Senator had the engine upgraded from the standard RQ105 to the newer and faster RQ115."

"Excellent, parts are easier to find for the RQ115 and it is easier to modify. Did the Senator by chance add any weapons?"

"Yes sir, he did. Single turbolasers on both sides and a duel cannon turbolaser emplacement on top. If you will go this way, I can show you the bridge." When they got to the bridge, the captain explained, "As you can see all major functions can be controlled by two people. One, if they are very good at juggling multiple tasks."

Naes looked intently at the layout of the control panel, "Hmmm, yes I might need to modify this to a more efficient layout. What about transponder codes and ID's and auxiliary power supplies?"

The captain looked at Naes for a minute and then said, "Right now we just have the one transponder ID and no extra power supplies. Will that be a problem sir?"

"No, not at all, just wanting to see what I had to work with. Go ahead and have everybody embark, I am ready to leave anytime."

A few hours later Naes was landing on Corellia, guiding his newly acquired cruiser in for a landing close to the Capitol, but far enough away that any prying Imperial eyes would not see it landing. As Naes was disembarking from his new ship-which he had decided to name _Knightfall_-he saw Senator Bel Iblis, a tall man who was beginning to grey. And like Naes, he appeared to be wearing the weight of the galaxy on his shoulders. "Master Nemelc, so good to see you; I hope that your journey was not too difficult?"

"Not at all Senator, it is good to finally meet you in person," Naes said with a genuine smile on his face. "I hope that we will be able to work well together for many years to come. We have a long arduous task ahead of us; one that will require decades of commitment."

When Garm heard Naes say decades, his face fell. "Do you really believe that it will take that long?"

"Yes, for an effective, well armed Rebellion to defeat Palpatine and Vader, and to have the support of the galaxy at large, it will take that long. Right now, we will be more of a nuisance than a true threat. But in about twenty years and a lot of hard work, you, Senator Organa and Senator Mon Mothma will be able to weld together a patchwork of disparate elements into a unified Rebellion. The hardest part will be in convincing them to work together. Both are running scared, not willing to take the risks necessary to effectively challenge Palpatine." What Naes could not tell Bel was that Master Yoda directed him to lay a military groundwork for a Rebellion that would be hitting its stride about the time that Luke was ready to train. Of course, the only one that truly knew the reasoning why was Senator Organa, which was fine with him, he was so worried Vader or Palpatine might visit and see the resemblance between Leia and Padme. Fortunately, Queen Brie had similar facial and hair coloring. "Senator, if you don't mind, I would like for you to show me where I can go and rest, the trip was long and I would like to rest for a few minutes before discussing any further business. Plus, nothing personal but being the engineer I am, I want to go over the Knightfall with a fine tooth comb and take her out on a shakedown trip, find any problems before entering combat."

"Not at all Master Nemelc, this way."

With that Naes and Garm Bel Iblis left the non descript hanger.


	4. Chapter 4

**The Love of a Jedi II**

**Chapter Four**

It had been a week since Naes landed on Corellia; in that period, he had gone over every inch of the Knightfall. He had been able to scrounge two more ship mounted blaster canons and was able to retrofit a torpedo launcher and a torpedo magazine, storing both photon torpedoes and concussion missiles. True, that cut down on the amount of storage space Naes had, but the trade off was worth it in his eyes. The Knightfall intended to be a gunboat. He also tweaked the RQ115 engines, greater straight-line acceleration and a slight increase in speed in hyperspace as well. He also found some auxiliary power units and two extra generators to plug into the engines, one to power the weapons and the second to give extra power to his shields. All in all the ship was stronger and faster than one would think. Which was exactly what Naes wanted; any potential opponents would underestimate the ship and be in for a nasty surprise.

After the shakedown Naes met up with Garm Bel-Iblis. "What did your agents say about the shipyard that I told you about?"

Garm looked at Naes, "Exactly as you said, plenty of Providence class Star Destroyers, a couple of Federation Battle Carriers and just a few guards. How did you know?"

"With the end of the war, Palpatine is going to want to reassure the public that the Empire is completely in control and that the Separatists have no chance of coming back. That means that all those operational ships that he had Darth Vader shut down, has to be hidden somewhere. He will primarily want to use Republic or Imperial ships. The list of boneyards that I gave you is the most remote ones and the easiest ones to hide entire fleets. Plus remember that Separatist ships were highly automated, primarily run by droids or with extensive computer control. That means when it comes time to procure them by illicit means, we will not need as many men to do so."

Garm's eyes brightened when he heard that, "So the strike teams we send can be smaller and more covert."

"I am familiar with the standard operating procedures for these shipyards. What you will need to do is send your teams to each ship covertly, if possible docking the insertion craft in the hanger bay of the target ship. On average, you will need about ten men per ship; the majority will make their way to the engine room, with one or two heading to the command center of the ship. At the same time, I will lead a small strike team against the control center of each shipyard. Make sure each insertion ship has a stealth coating on it, as well as the Knightfall."

"Why are you leading a team against the control center; that is asking for trouble?"

"On the surface it appears that way; as soon as the control center detects engines firing up on these decommissioned ships, they will issue an alert. Any operational ship at the shipyard will immediately respond and any Imperial ships will be investigating the alert. I will infiltrate the control center and disable the crew of the command center and if you can provide an astromech droid, it and I can infiltrate the Imperial Navy network, and do some data mining. For this too work with a minimum of problems, your salvage crews cannot fire up the engines until after I have given the go ahead."

"Sounds like a very good plan. I will remind the salvage crews of that detail. It will take a couple of extra days to apply the stealth coating."

"We have to have that coating, otherwise, the Knightfall and the other insertion ships will show up on sensors, and we would have a difficult time explaining why we are at the shipyards." For once, Naes was glad for typical Corellian independence; very few planetary governments bothered with extras like stealth.

**A few days later…**

Naes was slowly guiding the Knightfall in towards the shipyard using its maneuvering thrusters only. He wanted to be sure that no stray eyes by chance see the propulsion glow plus standard sensors would pick up the heat from his propulsion units. This was an arduous task; this close in to a base required Jedi type reflexes. He consulted his pad with the base schematic once more and glanced out the viewport. He saw where he wanted to dock the Knightfall. If he used the docking hanger, there would be records and views of the ship and the base personnel would know about an unannounced visitor. All of that was very bad for a covert mission. Besides, Naes wanted to retain as much anonymity about the Knightfall as long as possible. True there were thousands of ships with a similar look; fewer still had a stealth coating.

Slowly and ever so gently, he eased the Knightfall's airlock up against a rarely used and largely unknown airlock on the base. The magnetic clamps attached themselves to the base and Naes confirmed the seal between the airlocks was complete. He put the cockpit on standby, part of him wishing for either Rhea or Ezriel to stay and keep an eye on things.

After this mission, he would take a few days and return to Thule, and bring Ezriel and Tara to Corellia. Better for them to be together and train them on Corellia than completely put their training on hold. Naes figured that as well populated as the Corellian system was with the five planets plus the station constructed by the ancients known simply as Centerpoint that three Jedi would have an easier time of hiding than they would have on Sullust. If things looked promising, he might have Astra, Rhea and the kids join them here as well. There was precedence for a Jedi enclave on Corellia. Thousands of years ago, the Jedi did not have a central temple; rather they had many scattered enclaves across the galaxy.

Naes stepped to the airlock, double-checked the readings and glanced at the ten men that were waiting to assist him in taking out the base command center. "Remember follow me, stay quiet and try not to get noticed. Above all else, no matter what, do exactly as I tell you; and make sure that R5-Q10 stays with us. Our primary goal is to take out the command center and prevent any alerts from going out. But if possible we want to also download any info the base has in regards to the Imperial Navy."

He glanced at the trooper that was carrying a large backpack with antenna's sprouting from it. "As soon as we enter the base, switch on the jamming equipment. That way, we can disrupt their radio communications, meaning to communicate they will have to switch over to intercoms. Also, make sure that our communicators are synched with the jamming equipment, so that we can still talk to each other." Then, glancing at his tech sergeant he said, "As soon as you find an intercom, I want you to tap into it and monitor any comm signals sent."

Naes opened the airlock on the Knightfall then he stepped up to the base airlock, opened the exterior panel and hotwired it to open without sending a signal out. He and the men stepped into a hallway and proceeded for the nearest lift. They made the final turn and could see the lift some twenty meters away when it buzzed, indicating someone was about to get off. Naes and his men immediately began running, they all knew what that sound meant. "We cannot let them get back onto the lift and report our presence! Otherwise our mission is a bust."

Fifteen meters away the doors to the lift opened up and a squad of five Clone Troopers exited the lift. Fortunately, they were talking with each other did not expecting anyone else, the doors closing behind them. Naes and his team were nearly ten meters away when they looked up and noticed the other team. The trooper in the back immediately turned around to push the button calling the lift back. Naes shouted, "Jam their comlinks now!" at the same time he extended his hand and Force Pushed the entire squad up against the wall. He then lit his lightsaber and waded into the opponents; thinking how ironic it was that just a year ago he had served alongside the Clone Troopers and today they were his enemies. A few seconds later the skirmish was over, Naes helping his men hide the bodies out of sight.

Stopping right outside the lift, Naes put a couple men on lookout duty while he went over one more time with his men what the plan of attack would be on the command center. "This is a fairly simple command area; the lift opens up thirty degrees off center from the command pit. As a rule, troopers do not go to the command area. As soon as the doors open, they will know that something is wrong. We will need to act fast. The plan is that as soon as the doors open, I will Force Push everyone away from their consoles. While I am doing that, you follow me out of the lift and take everybody out. Your aim has to be precise and fast otherwise this caper is blown."

The team chorused, "Understood sir."

The lift took the team up to the next level. The doors opened, Naes started out of the lift and at the same time, he was lifting up his arm to push the command staff.

The man in charge looked up and said, "What is the meaning of this?" Just as he finished saying that, he started flying backwards along with the rest of his men. One man recovered quicker than expected and lunged for the alert button, the rest of his comrades already dispatched by Naes team of rebels. Naes was alert and immediately grabbed this one in the Force and lifted him up and away from the console and set him down in the corner.

"Quickly, put cuffs on him." He glanced to comm specialist, "Send the coded go signal to everybody."

"Yes sir."

"R5-Q10, plug into the data socket and start downloading everything that you can about from the station computers, any problems you have display on the central screen for me to deal with." The little astromech droid twittered in the affirmative.

Naes took a seat at the central screen and started doing his part to slice into the Imperial Network. "Careful, this is very touchy work. I don't want them to know that we have gained access to their network. Fortunately, they are still using Republic base security protocols." Naes pulled a data cassette out of his pocket and inserted it into the console reader.

"What are you doing sir?"

"I am planting a worm into the Imperial Network, within weeks every base and ship will be infected with this, with the exception of anything on Coruscant."

"Why not Coruscant; I would have thought you would want any info you could get from there."

"Normally that is true, but the best security experts are on Coruscant. If I infect the systems there, they would quickly discover my little friend, partition it off, false information planted to lure us into a trap, and we would never get another crack at the network again. They would specifically program their firewalls to stop anything that bears the hallmarks of my programming. Remember, I was a General. I programmed this gift to use the old protocols to sweep up anything that would fall under my old security clearances and to adapt and update the protocols on the fly as they are changed. Is R5 done yet?"

"He just finished."

"Good, let me set the reactor for this base to overload in about two hours."

"What, why is that?"

"Very simple, lightsaber wounds are very distinctive from blaster wounds. We cannot leave any evidence that a Jedi was here. The instant Palpatine and Vader know a Jedi is running around loose in the galaxy, they will bring the full weight of the Empire to bear against that threat. One more thing to do; and that is erase the station logs for the last twenty-four hours." Naes finished typing, and stood up. "Come on, let's get out of here. Comms, send a two hour signal warning to the other teams."

"Yes sir."

Naes and his team left the base along with a small fleet of fifteen Providence class Destroyers and two Lucrehulk class Battle Carriers. The good thing about the Lucrehulk platforms was that largely they were used for cargo carriers. Naes dropped off the squad of men on Corellia along with R5-Q10. "Let the Senator know I will be returning in a couple of days, and that when I do, I will need a cabin in a secluded area. I am bringing my two students here to Corellia to train. This way, we can all be of use to the Senator."

Naes lifted off in the Knightfall and headed for Thule. As he was leaving Corellia, he sent Rhea a message via the computer in his office on Sullust. "Rhea, I hope that you and Astra and the kids are all doing well. There has been a change in plans. I am heading for Thule to pick up Ezriel and Tara in order to train them on Corellia. For now, I want you and Astra to remain on Sullust. I still feel that it is best that we remain split up. Also, please give Astra my love; Naes signing off." He turned off the comms and calculated the course for Thule."

Several hours later, Naes dropped out of hyperspace in the Thule system. While doing so, he accessed the HoloNet, in order to catch up on the latest Imperial news. The leading news was the destruction of the shipyard, supposedly by disgruntled elements that wished to bring back the Confederacy of Independent Systems. According to the reports, more than twice as many men killed than what Naes knew to be the actual case. And to garner more sympathy, instead of being soldiers, they all the supposed victims were depicted as bureaucratic underlings. Then it showed a clip of Palpatine looking somber and saddened over the great loss of life, promising not let the great burden of leadership get him down and that incidents such as this one would only cause him to redouble his efforts to bring peace and security to the Empire. He also used this as an opportunity to show how an increase in security spending was necessary to counter this new and increasingly dour threat to the general citizenry.

Naes shook his head and commed Ezriel, "Ezriel how are you and Tara doing?"

"Not bad, I have taught her a few basic kata's; she at least can hold a lightsaber without being a danger to herself. She is also rather becoming adept at telekinesis and in holding her concentration; not bad if I say so myself." Naes could detect just a subtle hint of pride in Ezriel's tone. What was it Master Yoda had said once about a year ago, "Prideful and too sure of themselves the Jedi have become, not just the younger ones but the older ones as well, those that should know better." Sure enough, pride and arrogance had brought about the fall of the Jedi.

"Thanks for what you have done Ezriel, I will be the judge of her progress. I am sure that you have done well. I will be landing in a few hours, I want you and Tara to start packing everything up, we are leaving Thule." There was no need to deflate him completely, just a reminder that he was still a student himself.

A few hours later, Naes was landing the Knightfall at the camp that he had set up a couple months ago to train Tara and complete Ezriel's training. Of course, neither one had seen the Knightfall, so they were out of sight when Naes landed. He was proud of Ezriel; the camp appeared abandoned. As he landed, Naes sent out reassuring waves in the Force to Ezriel and Tara, neither had learned how to hide their presences in the Force. By the time he got to the hatch, Ezriel and Tara were approaching the ship. "Have you had any problems with raiders or any unwanted visitors?"

"No Master, we felt it prudent for the camp to appear abandoned to any strange or unknown ships."

"Very good instincts; in the perilous times that we face such instincts will serve you well. I have decided to move your training to Corellia; where part of your training will include real live missions. Please, help me load the Knightfall with whatever we have; the industrial generator and oven both definitely will go. There is no need to be wasteful or ungrateful. After all, it was Senator Bel Iblis that helped provide both, as well as the new ship for our contingent."

Ezriel was eyeing the Knightfall, taking in its lines. "Late model Republic Cruiser," his eyes alighting on the engine pods, "RQ115 engines, very nice; looks like a few turbolasers have been added on as well. I would love to give her a try; I am sure she handles even better than the Maverick."

"Correct my friend, a very good eye. Know we have much work to do." After loading the generators and the industrial oven, they packed the rest of their gear. Clothing, collapsible shelters, as well as all the food packs they had. After a couple hours, they were finished loading. "Ezriel, why don't you take the pilot's seat and lift us off, once in orbit please lay in a course for Corellia. Tara, during the journey, I want you to meditate. And I will be resting." With that, Naes and his two Padawan's headed to Corellia.


	5. Chapter 5

**The Love of a Jedi II**

**Chapter Five**

In the month since Naes first mission to help Garm Bel Iblis acquire a fleet of some sort to take on the Empire, he had gone on two more missions. Those missions had gone smoother, partly because Naes had been able to bring along Ezriel and Tara as part of their training and to assist. Tara's skills with a lightsaber were showing marked improvement; even more importantly the ability to discern when and when not to use her lightsaber was showing improvement. This morning he was tinkering with R5-Q10, allowing him to plug into the _Knightfall_ and pilot the ship by himself if the need arose. He just needed to insert one more chip and solder it in place. He glanced down and saw that he was out of fuel for the flame; Naes looked around to make sure no one was looking, and gave a burst with the Force to apply just a little bit of heat to the solder and firmly set the chip in place. He didn't feel like trying to explain to Ezriel how he did it.

About two weeks ago, he was investigating one of the holocron's he had been able to sneak out of the Temple during the fall. In the holocron, Master Yoda was saying that by applying the same principles to absorb the energy of Force Lightening, one could absorb the energy of blaserbolts, regular lightening, and with enough advancement, absorb the energy from the blow of a lightsaber. That caused Naes to look into applying energy. He knew how to use Force Lightening, with private practice he could now generate glowing balls of Force Energy and knowing that heat was just another form of energy, he had begun to learn how to apply directed heat. In the holocron, Master Yoda had referenced a Sith Holocron detailing how Sith Warriors could create heat with their hands, in an ability dubbed _Convection_. The Sith used this ability to burn their opponents, but Naes saw the practical benefits of using this ability in limited circumstances for other applications. Naes hoped to have the ability to absorb these same energies at some point in the future.

Naes closed the panel on R5 and said, "There you go, a memory upgrade and piloting subroutines. Also, you can fast boot the computer on the _Knightfall_ if I ever need you to do that. Of course, that also means that I will need to ask Garm to take you off the rotation, and to use you exclusively. Actually if you do not mind, I will ask Garm about just outright buying you. It should make things easier." Naes smiled at that one.

Naes stood up and walked out of the garage that he kept the _Knightfall_ and a couple of speeders. He helped pull his own weight here on Corellia, in addition to helping Garm Bel Iblis plan the acquisition missions, Naes also did some slicing on the side; all his slicing was done strictly against the Empire or systems that Naes knew for a certainty to support Palpatine. He would not slice anything dealing with Corellia, Chandrilla, Sullust, or Alderaan. And he never minded tweaking the Hutts just a little with some slicing against them. The slicing on the side helped him finance most of his life here on Corellia.

Naes really missed Astra, and he was considering moving her and the kids here to Corellia, after he added a couple more rooms to the house. Plus it would do Tara some good to have some private training time with Rhea. And having Rhea here would be one more person to rotate on their missions. Speaking of which, Naes figured probably just a few more missions to deserted shipyards before someone got wise and set a trap for them. Naes was not overly concerned about creating a Force Beacon here on Corellia, there was such an abundance of life, nearly as many in the system as there were living on Coruscant.

Just then, his comlink chirped, "This is Naes."

"Naes, this is Garm, I wanted to talk to you about the next acquisition that we could make. I know that it was not on your list, I noticed that there was an abandoned shipyard near Tepasi."

"Sir, there is a reason I left that shipyard off my list, it is owned and operated by the Tagge's, that is not a family you would want to mess with."

"Nonsense, Garm Bel Iblis runs from no man."

"Sir, the Tagge's are acquiring enough influence to rival the Tarkin's."

"All the more reason to send them a message, if they are going to profit from the Empire, then they will need to pay a price for that cooperation and can expect certain reprisals from rebel agents and saboteurs."

"I still don't think this is a good idea, but my team and I will assist on this raid as well."

"Excellent, I want the commando teams to leave in two days."

Naes sighed, there was something about the mission that he did not like; alert klaxons were going off in his head. He thought for a few minutes about whether he should take Ezriel and Tara both or just one of them. After giving it some thought, he decided that it was better to be safe, have the extra backup, and take both of them. Tara was getting to where she could hold her own in a firefight.

Later that evening after they had finished their dinner Naes told them both; "Pack your bags; we are going on another mission. Garm has asked that we leave in two days."

Ezriel asked, "Where are we going?"

"The shipyards near Tepasi; they have supposedly been abandoned by the Tagge family. Though I have never known the Tagge's to abandon anything. I doubt the yards are fully operational, but there has to be a caretaker staff of some sort there. We will leave R5 on the _Knightfall_; I want both of you to accompany me with the infiltration team for the main complex. Be prepared for anything, I have a bad feeling about this mission."

**Three days later…**

The _Knightfall_ slid silently next to one of the airlocks on the central shipyard complex. Naes did not like the feel of this mission. Something felt off about it. There were a handful _Invincible class _and surprisingly enough even a handful of old _Acclamator class _Star Destroyers; those made for excellent troop carriers. The saying "All too easy" sprang to his mind, this time in terms of this being a trap. Naes turned the controls over to Ezriel and submerged himself in the Force, searching and looking for anything that was amiss. Passive scanners had not picked up anything amiss. Of course, that could mean the suspected ships were in a passive mode, waiting for the teams to fire up the derelicts; thus giving away their presence in the process. He reached out searching for unknown or unexplained pockets of life forms that would indicate people positioned to spring a trap. That was odd, there seemed to be a pocket of darkness in the command area. Naes frowned at what that could mean. He could not imagine what that pocket of darkness could be. If it was one of the Inquisitors, they should be doing a better job of keeping themselves hidden. Naes could not imagine who or what was causing the darkness. He would just need to be extra cautious.

He positioned the ship next to the airlock, clamped on with the magnets, and began shutting everything down. "R5, I want you to stay on the ship, and be prepared to begin the startup sequence at a moment's notice."

Ezriel looked at Naes for a moment a questioning look in his eyes. Knowing his master well enough, Ezriel reached out with the Force himself, to get a feel for what had his master on edge. When he did that, he felt the pocket of darkness himself. He looked to Naes, "What is that Master?"

"I do not know; I need you and Tara both to be mindful though." Tara came walking up, never one to let an opportunity for training to go to waste, Naes said, "I want you to reach out with the Force and tell me what you feel."

"I feel the commandos here with us, the standard Stormtrooper presence on the station, the command staff…What is that? It feels cold and dark and oily, I feel dirty just brushing up against it. Master, there is something not right in the Command Center, a feeling of darkness."

"Precisely, Ezriel and I feel the same thing, I am not sure what it is, probably a person of some sort. Whoever or whatever it is, I want you and Ezriel to both listen to me. If things get tense, I need you to do whatever I tell you without questions."

Both of them answered, "Yes Master." With that, they proceeded into the station.

Within moments, Naes and his group entered the command center. He looked up and saw Baron Orman Tagge, head of the Tagge family; at his side, a female figure cloaked in darkness standing on a balcony overlooking the rest of the command section.

"Governor Tagge, what a pleasant surprise. What are you doing here at an abandoned shipyard? Are you thinking of investing in updating it? I can tell you from my brief tour, you should really invest in some cleaning and maintenance droids."

"I don't know who you are Jedi, but you might as well give up and submit to me."

"Now governor, whoever said I was a Jedi? And if I were a Jedi, certainly you know that we are outlaws and considered very dangerous. So dangerous in fact that the Emperor has created his own special group to track down and execute all Jedi. I am sure you have heard of the Inquisitors."

"Of course I have heard of them. Only a Jedi would have the skills and ability to lead a squad of troops past the security measures on these various shipyards that have mysteriously been losing inventory the past month."

"I will grant you that possibility, but what makes you think I am that Jedi."

"Simple, you are obviously the one leading the troops; some of them easily twice your age, yet the deference that they all show to you. You are at the head of a squad of troops, the way the boy to your right looks to you out of the corner of his eye for guidance. The way the girl to your left is that half step behind you and even she shows a level of deference to you. I bet you even have a lightsaber clipped to your belt, underneath your overcoat." He glanced to the figure cloaked in darkness and gave a small nod of his head. With that, she flicked her hand and a breeze pushed back Naes coat, revealing his lightsaber clipped to his belt. "Now Jedi, surrender to me and things will go a lot easier on you."

Naes looked down and saw his saber revealed. "Would you look at that, I wonder how that got there?" he said, reaching for his saber. With saber in hand, he leapt for the balcony, yelling to the squad, "Take care of business, Ezriel help them." He advanced on Tagge and said, "Now governor would you be kind enough to back down?"

Tagge looked at Naes and backed up a step and looked back at the female Force user, "Fath would you please do your thing?"

The figure stepped forward, throwing back her hood, revealing a tattooed face and igniting a blue lightsaber.

Naes looked at her, "I don't know you, but I know your kind. From the markings, you are a Nightsister from Dathomir. I never had the chance to duel your Sister, Asajj Ventress, though personally I always felt that her success had more to do with luck than any true skill with a lightsaber, Master Undali herself said that Ventress technique was sloppy. Where may I ask did you got your lightsaber? Blue really does not strike me as your color. I do hope that you will prove to be a welcome diversion."

Tagge spoke up on that, "I acquired the lightsaber of Aayla Secura from when she was gunned down by her clone troopers on Felucia."

With that, Fath rushed at him with a scream on her lips.

Naes raised his lightsaber up to defend himself and at the same time, "Governor, do you really think that a half trained primitive from Dathomir can defeat a fully trained Jedi?" The Nightsisters onslaught was furious, but lacked any real technique. Naes said, "Just like Ventress." With that, Fath jumped back gained space and then rejoined the duel, this time she caught Naes by surprise with a spin kick to his midsection, he grunted with pain but kept on with the duel.

Tara, jumped up behind him, "Master, let me take her."

"No! She is too powerful for you. You don't have the training yet to handle someone like her. The Dark Side fuels her rage, which in turn gives her more strength than you can handle. That is the lure of the Dark Side; it is fast, easy, and seductive. It is the quick and easy path. With more training though, you can take her with superior technique, skill, and focus."

Naes lured Fath into a blade lock and slowly used his superior height, strength and weight to press her back and down. Then, he shifted his foot behind her and tripped her. He adjusted his saber and went for the kill, Fath moved out of the way at the last minute.

Naes looked in surprise, "Excellent, you are quick; of course I have heard that most Nightsisters had a quickness about them. Do you really believe that you can defeat a fully trained Jedi?"

She looked at him and said, "Who says my goal is to defeat you?"

With that, she jumped to the bottom floor of the command area, Naes following her. Just as he landed, she jumped and struck him across the jaw with a spin kick. His head rolled back and she went for the kill. Naes recovered just in time and blocked her lightsaber and gathering his strength, he pushed her back. The two of them went back and forth on the lower level. At one point, Naes spied Ezriel out of the corner of his eye putting his hand over his lightsaber and getting ready to join the fray. He caught Ezriel's eye and gave a subtle shake of his head. Next thing, Fath jumped back to the top of the command section, Naes following her once more.

At this Naes began to tire of the duel, and instead of toying with her, he submerged himself in the Force and let loose on her with a furious onslaught of _Djem So_. He began to back Fath towards a corner railing, where she would have no space to use her speed and quickness to her advantage. A few steps before she got to the railing Fath jumped up and attempted to strike Naes across the jaw with a spin kick. He effortlessly blocked the kick with his arm and with the same arm, proceeded to strike her across the mouth, a portion of her blood splattering across his hand. "Normally I do not believe in hitting a lady, but all things considered, you are no lady."

Fath stepped back and jumped up onto the railing and said, "You do not understand Jedi, but you have just sealed your fate and lost." With that said; she jumped down to the bottom floor and joined the scurrying Tagge in a side turbolift.

"I have lost;" he said with incredulity; "You and Tagge are the one's retreating." He walked back down to the main floor and said to his team, "Come on, something tells me we need to make a quick getaway." At the same time, he was rubbing his hand where Fath's blood had landed. His skin there felt acidic. He decided that he was going to drop off the team at Corellia and then head to Sullust and spend some time with Astra and kids. He could always do his slicing from there. Let Rhea handle training Ezriel and Tara for a few days. Whenever he returned to Corellia from Sullust, he was going to have to get some things straight with Bel Iblis; first and foremost there would be no more acquisition trips at all. If Tagge had figured out the pattern then it stood to reason the Emperor and Vader had probably figured out the pattern as well and were laying a trap for Naes band of adventurers.

**Five days later…**

Naes was guiding the _Knightfall _down to its designated landing bay by Sullustan Traffic Control. He was looking forward to some well-deserved time with Astra and the kids. Being away from them was excruciating for him. After landing on Corellia, he called Rhea and had her pack up the _Maverick_ and move her stuff to Corellia. A week on Sullust and he would be moving Astra and the kids to Corellia. That way he could keep a closer eye on them, and it would give him an opportunity to start teaching his children the Jedi Arts. Part of Naes was looking forward to passing on to Naes Jr and Amalie instruction in using the Force. Such power and skills was their birthright as his children.


	6. Chapter 6

**The Love of a Jedi II**

**Chapter Six**

It had been a week since his brawl with Fath, the Nightsister from Dathomir. Since then, Naes had convinced Garm Bel Iblis that it was a good idea to lie low for a while, if Tagge had figured out their pattern, then it was certain that the Emperor and Vader had done the same thing, and had a trap waiting for them at a supposedly abandoned shipyard. Naes wished he could figure out what Tagge's angle was, for a system governor Naes would have expected someone with a higher intelligence than what he had seen. He did know that Tagge wanted a fully trained Jedi of his very own. Considering the Tagge's were not known for their altruism, it was a good guess that they did not want to help but rather exploit the abilities of a Jedi. Considering the Emperor had been extremely careful to keep his Force abilities hidden from the public at large, meant Tagge wanted to take on Vader.

What Naes could not figure out was why the Nightsister, if she was able to take out a fully trained Jedi, then just aim her at Vader. There was something else going on here, something that he had to figure out. He just worried that it might be too late before he figured out what was truly happening. Maybe he wanted to test Fath against a Jedi before sending her against Vader. That was a possibility; if Fath did well against a Jedi then she could conceivably do well against Vader. Truthfully, considering everything, Naes knew that not just anybody could stand up against Vader. He probably could, but Vader was not the problem, the problem was Emperor Palpatine or Darth Sidious, as it would be more appropriate to call him. Even Master Yoda could not defeat him, in his vision of nearly a year ago; it would have taken Anakin, Naes, and Mace to defeat Sidious.

Or if Naes went with his vision of nearly seven years ago, if he studied the teachings of the Sith and trained up his own order of Light Sith he could defeat the Emperor and become the next galactic ruler. The problem there was that Naes really did not want to rule the galaxy. That course would also leave the galaxy covered in darkness. Yoda was insistent that one of the Skywalker twins would bring balance to the Force and defeat their father and the Emperor. Naes did not know how that would happen. He just knew that for now his job was to help build the strength of the nascent rebellion. These were all thoughts for a later time, he was almost home and the sitter was not due to drop of Naes Jr and Amalie for another hour at least. That gave him some quality time to spend with Astra.

Naes smelled the air, expecting the fresh air that he normally smelled this close to home. However, this time, he could smell smoke. Immediately his eyes started scanning signs of smoke. There it was curling above the houses, almost directly ahead of him. Right about where his house should be. Naes opened himself up to the Force and reached for Astra, knowing that she should be home. He felt nothing! No Astra at all; he immediately broke into a run, anxious to get home and investigate. He searched the house, physically and with the Force, there was no sign of Astra. He came upon his study, and noticed the indicator for a recording. Naes stepped to his desk and activated the play back. The image of Governor Tagge appeared on his screen.

"Jedi Master Naes Nemelc, I must say that it was a privilege making your acquaintance. And who would have thought that you of all the Jedi would have strayed from the teachings of your order and married. Now if you wish to see your lovely wife ever again and relatively unharmed then I suggest that you listen to me. If you do not show up on Tepasi within one standard week, your wife will suffer most excruciatingly. I have a most simple assignment for you, one that you should enjoy doing. I want you to kill Darth Vader. After that, we will discuss what other jobs I might have you do for me. I think that I shall enjoy having a Jedi for a pet. Just as Vader is the Emperor's enforcer, you will become my enforcer."

Naes knew now that Governor Tagge did not intend to free Astra; he would hold her prisoner as leverage against Naes. His only option was to break Astra free, and maybe throw such a scare into Tagge that he would never think about attempting such a thing against any other Jedi. How though did he locate Naes and Astra on Sullust? Naes began turning that question over in his mind. He then remembered that Naes Jr and Amalie were supposed to be dropped off in about half an hour. He did not want them to see the house like this, so he went and grabbed their luggage; thankfully, Astra had begun packing that. He grabbed her suitcase that she had started packing. He commed the sitter and told the sitter that he would be by in a few minutes to pick up the kids. He threw the luggage in the speeder with the kid's restraint seats already installed.

He got to the sitter, loaded the kids in the car and told the sitter that the family was going on vacation for a couple weeks. Naes Jr and Amalie both were wondering where their mommy was. Naes did not quite know what to tell them, except that they would see their mommy soon. Unfortunately, with both children being Force Sensitive, they could feel their dad's unease through the Force. He got to the _Knightfall _without any problems, loaded the kids and the families' luggage onboard, put the kids in their restraint seats and took off. Once he achieved orbit, Naes laid in a general heading out of the system at sublight speeds. He needed to think, and until now, he had not had the time to do so, having operated on automatic pilot. He had a week to save Astra from the Tagge's. Finally, Naes laid in a course for Dagobah. He would go and speak with Master Yoda.

When Naes arrived at Dagobah, he could see why Yoda chose to hide here, talk about armpit of the galaxy. The scanners were overloaded with life signs; there were so many lifeforms on the planet that they could hide Yoda's presence from afar. Then Naes felt the nexus of dark side energy. That would help hide Yoda as well. Naes grabbed the kids and headed for the auxiliary drop ship the _Knightfall_ carried, just for such rare occurrences.

Naes landed the drop ship in an open clearing not too far from where he could sense Master Yoda. As Naes and the kids walked down the boarding ramp, the diminutive Jedi Master was at the bottom waiting to greet them.

"What brings Naes Nemelc this far out? With younglings nonetheless; wish you for me to train them? Train them I will not. No more Padawan's will I take."

Naes leaned over to his son and said, "Why don't you and your sister stay in the ship and play for a little while, daddy has to talk with Master Yoda."

"After that can we go and see mommy?"

Naes heart broke hearing such a simple and innocent question coming from his son. Putting conviction in his words he said, "We have a couple more stops to make and then soon mommy will come see you and Amalie."

"Come on Amalie, let's go play. Then we get to see mommy real soon." With that, both of his children ran back into the ship, leaving Naes alone with Yoda.

The former Jedi Master was looking up at Naes with a quizzical expression on his face.

"Astra was kidnapped by a Nightsister working for Governor Tagge. He left a message for me, giving me a week to appear on Tepasi to be his pet Jedi. I have been assisting Garm Bel Iblis in creating a little bit of havoc and procuring some decommissioned CIS ships. How did he track me to my home on Sullust?"

"A Nightsister did you say? By chance did some of her blood land on you?"

"Yes, some did. During the duel, I slapped her and some of her blood landed on my hand. Why does that matter?"

"Create a blood trail she did. Follow you she did after the duel."

"What do I do now Master Yoda? Tagge has my wife, I don't dare turn myself over to him, but if I don't then he will kill Astra."

"Part of this is why the Code forbids a Jedi from marrying. Used against a Jedi a mate could be. Unbalanced a Jedi could become if such a thing were to happen. You must let go of your feelings. A natural part of life is death. Become one with the Force Astra will. Allowed to become a puppet of Tagge you must not be."

Suddenly Naes was struck with a vision, he saw Anakin communing with Yoda in the esteemed Master's quarters. Anakin was discussing a nightmare that he had about someone close to him and Yoda giving the same platitudes about death and becoming one with the Force. Naes looked at the Grand Master and said, "Were those the same platitudes you gave Anakin when he went to you for guidance before the fall? You have no idea how cold those platitudes sound to someone who has known love."

"To me he did not confide that the dream was about a wife."

"Of course not, he would have been expelled from the Order on the spot. Though I doubt very much that would have made much of a difference to you and the rest of the Council. It would have been one more mess of Anakin's for you to fix, except this time it would have been different, his wife was an influential Senator and he was good friends with a very popular Chancellor. Palpatine would have made so much political hay off that. And just as I was forced to, he was forced to keep his marriage a secret. I finally see why the Order fell, why the galaxy no longer trusted us. The Jedi had grown distant and insulated from the concerns of the galaxy at large. In our quest for the greater good and having compassion for everybody, we forgot about caring for people and individuals. No wonder Sidious was able to feed off Anakin's fears. The Jedi Order appeared to be cold and uncaring. While the Republic became more and more corrupt, and by extension the Senate with it, the Jedi Order was seen as being a pawn of the corrupt powers. If I am to sacrifice Astra, then you go tell those children up in the ship that they are never going to see their mother because it is for the greater good of the galaxy. I was foolish to come here for advice; I will have to find my own way and my own path from here on."

"Obvious it is that you are angry. Beware, to the Dark Side does that lead. Forever will it dominate you if you were to fall."

"What of Revan? He walked in the Light and Dark."

"Revan you say? Ha! A heretic to the Jedi way was he. An example you should not look to him for."

"Master, I read some of the accounts of his life after the Mandalorian War. Most of them agree that he was redeemed back to the light, even regaining most of his memories stolen by the Council of that time. They say that he learned to walk the knife-edge between Light and Dark but that he never forgot the spirit of self-sacrifice that embodied a true Jedi."

"The Council did what they thought was best when they freed him of his memories."

"And what gave the Council the right to take his memories without permission?"

"The Council decided what the best course of action was, and acted."

"I am leaving Master; I had hoped that you might give me ideas or suggestions, some sort of help. Instead, I will find my own path. If you wish, I will take you anywhere that you want. I may not be a Jedi, but I still hold you in high regard and deeply respect you."

"Stay here I will. Eventually the son of Skywalker will need training and guidance. When that time is, here I will be to give it, if he qualifies."

"Master, other than me, Luke is the only one that has any chance of standing toe to toe with the Emperor and Vader. You have asked that I not make the attempt. That means you are expecting him to murder his father. We both know from my previous vision that I would have to embrace to a degree some of what you consider the Dark Side in order to succeed."

"No! Not just what I consider the Dark Side, what Jedi for millennia have called the Dark Side. Restore balance to the Force that would not. Trade one tyrant for another the galaxy would. The father of Skywalker is dead, gone is he forever."

"I would claim the title of Emperor, but I would abide by the rule of law. Personally, I would say that the galaxy needs a strong leader. Only from a certain point of view is Skywalker dead. You and Master Kenobi hold to that view to assuage your conscience for when you ask Luke to murder his father."

Naes shook his head, turned and walked back up the ramp. When he reached the top of the ramp he looked down at Yoda and said, "Good-bye Master, this will be the last I bother you. Our paths no longer run parallel to one another. I will have to chart my own course. I will continue to help the nascent rebellion and help Garm Bel Iblis. And I promise to never forget the spirit of self-sacrifice that I learned from the Jedi Order."

"Then I fear that Naes Nemelc is sick and may possibly die, to be betrayed and murdered by Darth Imperious."

Naes looked at Yoda sadly and said, "I have no intention of taking up that name Master Yoda, but unlike seven years ago; I do not fear that name or what it implies." With that, Naes returned to the cockpit stopping to buckle the kids in their restraint seats. Once he reached the cockpit, he looked out and saw Yoda sitting on a log in front of the drop ship, he was looking sad as well. Naes filled his heart with respect and warm feelings and projected them to Yoda. Naes then flipped a switch and spoke into the mic pickup. "Master, I have the utmost respect for you and the teachings of the Order both hold a place of honor in my heart. I have to find my own path now. We knew that such an occurrence was likely to happen in these Dark Times." He closed the connection and engaged the repulsors to lift the ship and rendezvous with the main body of the _Knightfall. _After docking with the _Knightfall_, Naes set a course for Corellia.

During the voyage, he did some soul searching and deep meditation. It was then that Naes knew what he needed to do. As soon as the _Knightfall _dropped out of hyperspace, Naes was on the comm requesting a meeting with Garm as soon as possible at the enclave that he had set up. Afterwards, he called Rhea to let her know to expect him and Garm in a few hours.

When he set the _Knightfall_ down next to the _Maverick_, he had an hour until Garm was due to arrive. Naes Jr looked up at him and said, "Daddy, when do we go get mommy? I really miss her."

"Very soon, I am going to drop you and Amalie off at our new home on Corellia and then Daddy is going to go and get Mommy."

"Can I go with you Daddy? I really want to. I promise that I will be a good boy."

"No, I am afraid that you are too little to go with me on this particular trip, I need you to stay here with Aunt Rhea and help take care of Amalie. I really need you and Amalie to go and play quietly in your new room, Daddy has to talk with the other adults about a problem."

"Is it the same problem that you disagreed with Master Yoda about?"

Naes was amazed how perceptive his children were, he was going to leave instructions with Ezriel and Rhea to begin training both of his children in the ways of the Force. But he knew that he had to answer his son's question. "It partially has to do with why Daddy disagreed with Master Yoda. Master Yoda wanted Daddy to give something up that Daddy did not want to give up just yet; it is something very important to Daddy. But I want you to know that Daddy and Master Yoda are still friends, but sometimes friends do not always agree with one another. Do you understand that?"

"A little bit."

"That's good, let's go inside and show you and Amalie your new rooms?"

"That sounds like fun."

After showing Naes Jr and Amalie their new rooms and diverting their attention with their toys and a new game, Naes sat down in the living room with Rhea, Ezriel and Tara. Just then Garm walked in the door.

"Jedi Master Nemelc, what seems to be the problem? Why the rushed meeting?"

"First, I want to thank all of you for being here. Garm, secondly should anything ever happen to me, please continue to allow my companions and friends to remain here on Corellia, they can be of service to you and your people. Third, Rhea and Ezriel should I not come back please do me two favors; first raise my children like you would your own and secondly train them in the ways of the Force."

Rhea looked at Naes and said, "Now you have me worried. What is wrong Naes, where is Astra? Why is it just you and your kids?"

"Governor Tagge kidnapped Astra from Sullust. If I do not show up on Tepasi within a couple of days, she will be executed."


	7. Chapter 7

**The Love of a Jedi II**

**Chapter Seven**

With those words, the entire room broke out into an uproar. Naes held his hand up waiting for things to quiet down. "First the how is, remember my duel with Fath on our last mission? As you know she is a Nightsister, when her blood landed on my hand during the duel, she used it to create a blood trail. She and Tagge apparently used it to follow me to Sullust, where once I was gone, they kidnapped Astra."

Rhea spoke up, "What does he want? What are you going to do?"

"He wants his own personal pet Jedi, and for me to take out Vader myself."

Garm then asked, "Excuse me if this sounds impertinent, but are you strong enough or capable enough to take out Darth Vader?"

Naes fixed Garm with his gaze and said, "Without bragging sir, but you could probably count on one hand the total number of people that could take on Darth Vader and win. I am one of them. But before you ask why I do not, the answer is because Vader is not the problem; the problem is Palpatine. Governor, you are one of the very few people who actually knows the truth about the Emperor, that being he is a Sith Lord; a very powerful one, so powerful that he defeated Master Yoda in a duel; strong enough that he fought Master Windu to a standstill. I know only of one way that I could possibly defeat him."

"Why don't you do it then, anything has to be better than having him in power."

"One, if I took this route, the spark of the Jedi would never return to the galaxy. Two the galaxy would remain under tyranny for easily the next hundred years. Three, for me to take the one route I know, requires that I recruit several more Force Sensitives and we all train on Ziost in the Sith arts. We would be fighting his brand of fire with fire, darkness with darkness. And finally, I promised Master Yoda that I would work within the plan that he and Obi Wan have come up with."

Garm then asked, "What is your plan to rescue your wife?"

"That is the easy part; I will turn myself in to Tagge."

Rhea spoke up, "There is no way you can do that, and surely you know that Tagge has no intention of keeping his word. Once you turn yourself in, he will keep you and Astra both."

"I know that, that is why the same time that I am turning myself in, you, Tara, and Ezriel will be sneaking in and freeing Astra from Tagge's prison.

Rhea spoke up "Won't Tagge expect such a move and have an overwhelming number of guards and Fath guarding Astra?"

"Yes he would, this is where Garm comes in."

"What do you need me to do Naes?"

"I need you to provide enough men to put a skeleton crew on three _Providence_ class ships and for those ships to lead an attack on Tagge's planet and to put a few droids on the ground to tie up any excess soldiers he might have."

"Won't that tip our hand?"

"Actually no it won't, Tagge, the Emperor and Vader all know that we have begun acquiring a fleet. They can even guess at its size just from the number of ships that have come up missing."

"Wait, everytime you acquired ships, you erased the records for that particular shipyard. How will they have an idea of the fleet size?"

"Garm, I destroyed the records at each shipyard, depending on when the last time that shipyard sent an upload to Coruscant, the Emperor and Vader have an idea. Not an accurate count, but they could make a very educated guess."

"When do you need the ships to attack?"

Naes looked at his watch, took into account time shifts from star system to star system and then said, "Attack in thirty-six hours."

Garm got up, "In that case, I should be on my way to have ships and crews prepared. One question, when we attack, do we attack with intent or just to provide a distraction?"

Naes looked at Garm and said, "Sir, in order to teach Tagge a lesson he will not soon forget, attack with intent; with the caveat that you do everything possible to avoid civilian casualties."

"I understand. May the Force be with you all."

Rhea then said, "Naes, if all four of us are going to rescue Astra, who will watch the kids?"

Naes turned red, "I guess us taking a five year old and a three year old with us into battle is out of the question. Think maybe Tagge would have a heart and release Astra if Naes Jr and Amalie asked real nicely?" He said that one with a smirk on his face.

"Real funny, I have been talking with Tara and Ezriel about possible babysitters since I got here, we can't leave the kids with strangers for days."

Naes looked thoughtfully, then his face brightened. "I have the perfect idea, he is not a stranger, the kids just met him; and I think that it would do him good to have some younglings around. Remind him of life in the outside galaxy. Ezriel, cook up a couple of crystals for training sabers, and put the oven on the Knightfall. We will have to let the crystals cook on our way there." He then called out, "Children, grab your things and get ready to leave. We are taking one more trip."

Rhea looked at him, "Who is going to watch the kids? What is it you are cooking up in your mind?"

Naes smiled as he looked at her and Tara, and simply said, "I am in the mood for some root stew."

Ezriel poked his head up from the industrial oven and said "No, you wouldn't. Doesn't that qualify as child abuse?"

Tara looked confused at Ezriel's comment and Rhea said "You can't be serious, even after what you said just happened between the two of you?"

Tara finally asked, "Who?"

Naes looked at her, a wicked grin on his face, "I am going to ask Master Yoda to babysit for a few days."

"The Master Yoda, greatest Jedi ever; little green guy that talked funny."

Naes said, "The one and only, before the fall, Master Yoda was responsible for basic saber guidance for younglings from the ages of five years through ten years. For a lot of us, Master Yoda is the one that taught us to hold a lightsaber and our first experience in feeling the Force."

Rhea added, "Master Yoda enjoyed spending time with the younglings; the purity of their thoughts, their open mindedness. He often marveled at the minds of children."

"Here is the plan,-Rhea, you, Tara and Ezriel will leave as soon as possible in the Maverick and go to Tepasi, infiltrate the prison that the Tagge's use. I will take the Knightfall and drop the kids off for Master Yoda to watch and then I will turn myself in to Orman Tagge. The idea is that at 10am Tepasi time tomorrow I will be in the middle of turning myself in to Orman, when the diversion fleet drops out of hyperspace and starts attacking the planet and drops droids. You should have no problem knowing when that is, half the planet will know about the attack. When the fleet strikes, free Astra, let me know and depending on my situation, we will decide on further action then."

The three of them nodded to Naes and began packing the Maverick for their trip to Tepasi. Meanwhile, Naes packed the Knightfall for his trip to Dagobah to drop off the kids and to turn himself over to Orman Tagge.

When Naes and the kids landed the drop ship on Dagobah, he saw Master Yoda sitting on the same log, almost as if he had never moved. When Naes went to unbuckle his kids from their seats, his son asked, "Why are we back at Dagobah? When do we get to see mommy?"

Naes knew then that he was going to have to be honest with his children to some degree. He put his hands on his son's arms and squatted down to look his son in the eyes and said, "I did not want to tell you this son, but some bad men took your mommy. But your Aunt Rhea and Uncle Ezriel are helping your daddy get mommy back. Until then, I need you and your sister to stay with Master Yoda and be good for him while I go and get mommy. I am leaving you guys here because I know Master Yoda will keep you safe."

"OK daddy, come on Amalie, let's go say hello to Master Yoda."

Naes walked down the ramp behind his children; wishing that they did not have to go through such drama in their young lives. The children stopped briefly to say hello to Yoda, and off they went to explore the surrounding swamp area. Naes called out, "Stay here close where I can see the two of you." At the same time, he sat down on the log next to Yoda, keeping some of his Force sense focused on Naes Jr.

"So, what brings Naes Nemelc back?" Yoda asked. "To apologize perhaps; see the error of your ways maybe?"

"Yes and no Master, I have come up with a plan to save Astra, it involves me and my team, with help from Garm Bel Iblis."

"Then come here why did you?"

Naes got a gleam in his eye and said, "I felt that it was not good for my former Master to be here all alone on Dagobah, that you needed company. I also needed someone to watch two Force sensitive children that would need supervision while I and their other caregivers are rescuing their mother. So being the resourceful Jedi that you taught me to be, I took care of two quandaries with the same solution. While I am away to rescue their mother, I figured that you could watch Naes Jr and Amalie, just as you did me as a youngling and did Ezriel while I was away on dangerous missions. I even brought a couple of training sabers and a remote. That way, just as you laid the foundation for many younglings at the Temple, you can lay the foundation for my children as well."

At that, Yoda began to laugh, "Too old I am not, it would seem to learn new things or to pass on what I have learned. Good it will be to spend time with younglings. Remember there is life beyond the planet I needed to. And what of my Root Stew, should they eat that as well?"

Naes looked at Yoda and said with a twinkle in his eye, "Sure why not, after all Ezriel and I survived it; they can too. It would be an excellent learning experience for them." Naes smirked. He loved his children, but he figured if he had to endure Yoda's Root Stew, then Naes Jr and Amalie could as well. He called his children to him and said, "Naes, Amalie, daddy has to leave for a while to go and get mommy. I promise that I will be back in a couple days, and then we can be together again. Until then, I need for you to be good and listen to Master Yoda, while I am gone, he will teach you about lightsabers. OK."

The two chorused "OK Daddy."

Naes wrapped both of them up in his arms and hugged them tight, he did not care what Yoda thought. He knew deep in his heart that his love for Astra and the kids made him stronger. He let go of them and turned and walked back up the ramp of the drop ship of the Knightfall. He was free now to concentrate on his most important mission to date, rescuing his beloved Astra. His right hand swung at his side and in so doing he felt the cold steel of his lightsaber. The feel of its presence was reassuring to him. Naes had done his fair share of aggressive negotiations, but the upcoming battle he knew was going to be intense. That was alright, Rhea was one of the better Knights, under normal circumstances Ezriel would almost be ready to face the Trials and take his place as a full-fledged Knight as well. In fact, after this mission if everything went as planned, Naes would formally Knight Ezriel. Technically it did not mean much, but he knew that would mean the world to Ezriel. With that, he set a course for Tepasi and his date with Governor Orman Tagge.

A few hours later the Knightfall dropped out of hyperspace and began orbital approach of Tepasi. For all appearances the planet appeared to be any other planet that was the seat of a major family in the Empire. From orbit it appeared greenish brown with blue oceans. A very large amount of orbital traffic, nothing compared to what one might expect above Corellia or even Coruscant, the approach vectors traffic control gave Naes was child's play compared to the approach vectors he had as a Jedi coming into Coruscant or even coming into Corellia. That was then that a very large ship caught Naes attention. This ship was huge, dwarfing the Venator class Star Destroyers that he had commanded just a year earlier. It was one of the new Imperator class Star Destroyers; a perfect symbol of the Emperor's entire program of ruling through fear.

At the same time that he saw an Imperator class Star Destroyer, he felt a very dark presence on the planet's surface. Such a presence could only indicate a dark side user strong in the Force. Fortunately since the fall a year ago Naes had taken to keeping his Force presence hidden, such ability was fairly advanced, Rhea had just gotten adept at it and Ezriel was just learning. Naes hoped that they were alright and had escaped the notice of this dark side user. Naes wondered who it was; he surreptitiously hacked the traffic control computers of Tepasi and pinged the Star Destroyers ID. The ID came back as the Exacter; Naes breath caught in his throat. That explained the dark presence he felt on the planet, Darth Vader was there.

Instead of reaching out for them in the Force, which would give all of their presences away to Vader, he opted for a more blatant method. Once more hacking traffic control, he piggybacked his comm signal on their frequency and chimed Rhea.

She picked up pretty quickly, "This is Rhea, what is Naes?"

"Are you and the team alright?"

"Yes, what's the matter, you sound worried. I really didn't expect you to contact me via comm."

"Rhea, I need you to immediately have Ezriel and Tara work on hiding their Force presence. I just hit orbit, and Darth Vader is on the planet. I am looking at the Exacter right now, and when I dropped out of hyperspace I immediately felt a dark presence on the planet's surface."

"What about the plan for tomorrow? What do you want us to do?"

"My guess is that Vader is paying Orman a visit, Orman has been maneuvering to have the Emperor replace Vader by himself. You guys should be alright for the jail break, as soon as you free Astra, send her and Tara back to Corellia in the Maverick."

"OK, what about Ezriel and myself?"

"After Tara and Astra get away, you and Ezriel take the Knightfall and make a grand entrance on the governor's party. I have a feeling between Orman, Vader, and Fath that things might get interesting. Also, be sure and send Garm a coded message, apprising him of the presence of the Exacter. My suggestion is that he bring a couple of extra Providence class to help out and that as soon as he hits orbit, send one of them on a collision course with the Exacter."

"Naes, you really like to live dangerously and to set off some real doozies of fireworks. Not to mention irritate half the galaxy."

Naes smiled at that one and said, "Yeah I know, but you wouldn't have it any other way, it keeps life interesting doesn't it. I will meet you guys when I land, and we can discuss things further."

As Rhea said, things were going to get very interesting and Naes was about to irritate one of the most dangerous men in the galaxy, namely Darth Vader. He hoped he was up to the challenge. Any other time he faced Anakin, he had won. But those were sparring sessions, not duels to the death. Besides, he had not sparred with Anakin since just before the Clone Wars started. This was turning out to be one messed up rescue mission, Naes was glad he had left the kids with Master Yoda after all, at least there they were relatively safe.


	8. Chapter 8

**The Love of a Jedi II**

**Chapter Eight**

Naes had only been on Tepasi an hour and he was meeting Rhea, Tara, and Ezriel. "Let's go over the modified plan. You three will rescue Astra from the prison. Have you found which prison she is in? And what her cell number is?"

Rhea spoke up, "Yes, you are not going to like it. Astra is being held in Tagge's private dungeon, below his castle."

"Let me guess, the very same castle where I will be turning myself in to Governor Tagge and setting off fireworks with Darth Vader?"

"I said you were not going to like it."

"This might actually work to our advantage. First, was Garm able to provide the extra two Providence class cruisers?"

"Yes, there was some grumbling about it."

"Understandable, send him a coded message, hit Tagge's abandoned shipyards and acquire everything that he can lay his hands on. Suggest he talk to Bail Organa and Mon Mothma to provide the extra manpower needed to grab the extra ships. I can promise that Tagge and Vader both will be preoccupied with things on Tepasi. Two cruisers to deal with the Exactor, one cruiser for laying down ground support fire, specifically around the castle, being careful not to hit the wooded area just south of the castle, where we will be hiding the ships. The other two cruisers I want to cause general mayhem and orbital destruction."

"What about the rescue team? What do you want us to do?"

"You and the droids will infiltrate the prison area, break Astra out; after that Tara and Astra will take the Maverick and leave the planet heading for Corellia. Rhea you and Ezriel will take the Knightfall and blast a hole in the side of the castle, opening a path for me to escape Vader and Fath both."

Rhea spoke up, "Naes, do you think you can handle Fath and Vader both at the same time?"

"I have no intentions of fighting them both; I plan on pitting them both against each other. There is no way Vader can allow Tagge to keep a pet Nightsister. If I bring up the memory of Asajj Ventress, that should send Vader clean over the edge. He always hated Ventress. Besides, if I point out to him that Tagge could be setting a dangerous precedent by keeping a Force Sensitive enforcer and assassin. With those two things, I am hoping that Vader will go ahead and kill Fath for us. At the very least, he will be so engaged with her that I can make my escape."

"Sounds like a plan; we have twelve hours before action. Tara, Ezriel I suggest we all get some rest."

"I agree, everybody be sure and keep your Force presences hidden; at least until after we set off the fireworks."

Twelve hours later, Darth Vader was in the middle of lecturing Governor Orman Tagge in his office on the dangers of making an enemy of him. At that moment, Naes started walking towards the main entrance of Tagge Castle and he immediately stopped hiding his Force presence and actually began broadcasting it. He knew that Vader and Fath both would be drawn to the brilliance of his presence; both wanting to get rid of him. Vader just because he had made it his personal mission to eradicate the Jedi presence in the galaxy; Fath because she felt that she owed Naes for her defeat a couple weeks earlier.

Naes come upon the grand entrance doors and casually gestured with his hand and the doors blew inward, thrown off of their hinges, there was that much power behind his Force Push. At the same time, he could feel the fleet dropping out of hyperspace and engaging the planetary defenses.

Vader stopped in mid-sentence, his head shot up and you could hear him exclaim, "What!" He then turned to Governor Tagge and asked, clearly annoyed with the governor. "What is Jedi Knight Naes Nemelc doing here on Tepasi?"

Orman Tagge turned as white as Stormtrooper armor, "What do you mean Lord Vader, I don't know anyone named Naes Nemelc?"

"Perhaps you can explain then why he just shoved the doors of your main entrance off their hinges and is striding into the castle with an air of determination."

"He, he, he's here now? I never thought that he would do this. I have to get out of here now, before he kills me."

Vader stopped him and said, "Now governor is that any way to treat a guest, leaving just as they arrive? The polite thing is to find out what he wants. I am certainly curious as to why a Jedi would suddenly show up on your front door step and announce himself in such a grand way."

Orman Tagge began weighing in his mind which was the greater threat to his life, an angry Darth Vader or an unhappy Jedi Knight. He then weighed the odds of successfully getting away from Darth Vader at that point in time. He chose the course that allowed him to continue living for at least the next few minutes. "Whatever you say Lord Vader, let's go meet our Jedi guest and find out what he wants."

Just then Vader's comm link went off, "For your sake Admiral this better be good."

A voice from the comm link said, "Lord Vader five Providence class cruisers have just dropped out of hyperspace. Two are engaging the Exactor; two are laying waste to the planetary shipyards. And one is preparing to fire upon the area where you are at."

"I do not have time to deal with such trivialities Admiral, you deal with the situation. I have a traitorous Imperial bureaucrat and a Jedi both to deal with." Just then Vader felt Fath for the first time, "Interesting. Admiral, see that I am not disturbed unless it is vitally important. I have things on the ground to deal with; you deal with the rebels up there."

At the same time that Vader felt Naes, Fath felt him as well. When the Exactor appeared in orbit over Tepasi, Orman Tagge had bid her to hide her presence and remain in hiding, and to avoid Darth Vader to the best of her ability. She had been getting tired of being cooped up below the ground like a prisoner. So when she felt Naes broadcasting his presence, she eagerly sought him out. She had a score to settle with him. She did not care if Vader discovered her or not, she would deal with Vader the same way she dealt with Naes Nemelc.

Naes and Fath met each other in the great hall of the castle, Naes felt Fath coming from a mile away. As soon as she felt Naes, she forgot all about hiding her presence. He had hoped that he might be able to pit Fath against Vader, unfortunately that was not going to be the case. The good news, from what he could get from Rhea, the rescue attempt for Astra was going as well as could be expected. Fath came running at Naes, her lightsaber lit, hanging low and behind her side. Naes first thought when he saw her holding her lightsaber like that was, "Sloppy technique, no training in combat at all." He lit his lightsaber, holding it in _en guard _high and to the side of his head. He stood stock still, a statue of serenity against the storm of rage that was Fath. He called out to her, "Don't do this Fath, this time there will be no quarter given. I have to rescue my wife that you helped kidnap."

Fath shouted out, "Foolish Jedi, I expect no quarter and I promise that I will give you none. Your life is mine."

Naes sighed, "As you wish." With those words, he stepped forward and met Fath; a scream erupting from her as she attempted an overhanded slash against him. Naes stepped to the side and brought his saber down hard, meeting her strike. There was so much power in his strike that her saber was knocked back and the force of the blow rattled her. He immediately brought his saber up and around, attempting to chop her in half. She barely got her blade up in time to block him, the heat from his saber scorching the hairs on her arm. She then tried to sweep her blade up and over, Naes anticipating stepped back allowing her momentum to carry her blade up and out of the way. He immediately stepped in with a flurry of stabs from _Vaaped_, scoring several marks of contact.

Fath howled in pain, stepped back and hurled herself against Naes. They traded several more blows back and forth, Naes then took and Force Pushed her halfway down the hall. He stepped back took a deep breath and before Fath could recover, he Force Jumped to where she was and finished the duel cleanly and quickly. By this time Tagge and Vader had shown up. Naes looked over at Tagge and said, "Sorry about your pet Nightsister, Governor. As you can tell, she has gone all to pieces."

Vader spoke up, "I am glad to see that you have not lost your flippancy or sense of humor Jedi Nemelc."

"Vader, I have to admit that I am surprised to see you here, your choice of associates has dramatically gone downhill in the past couple of years. I guess that is what happens when you become the lap dog for a sleemo like Darth Sidious; though you certainly do add a certain amount of class to this dump."

"While I like the way you disposed of that Nightsister filth, very soon you shall meet the same fate as her."

"You know, I did not know that mental delusions were a side effect of selling out all your friends and becoming a Sith Lord. You know as well as I do that anytime we have sparred, I was the one that took you to school. I defeated Dooku as easily as you did. In fact, I even defeated Grievous, something you could not ever accomplish by yourself. Now, you are just a pale shadow of your former self."

The second Naes said the words; he could feel Vader's reaction in the Force. He knew that his connection with the Force paled compared to how it was before his disfigurement. A howl erupted from Vader with that comment. He grabbed his lightsaber and advanced on Naes. "You shall pay for your insolence you pathetic Jedi."

Naes was not quite done, so he Force Pushed Vader. "Stop and think for a minute. Where did this Nightsister come from? You know that Jedi have nothing to do with Nightsisters. Obviously I had a score to settle with her, and her with me. Your friend the governor over there found her and helped train her for his own personal use. He had the idea that if she could not defeat me then he would blackmail me by kidnapping my wife and holding her hostage."

With those words, Vader turned on Tagge and asked menacingly, "Is that true governor?"

If it was possible for Orman Tagge to go any whiter he did; the expression on his face making it apparent that he was caught in a very uncomfortable position. "Lord Vader, surely you don't believe this Jedi outlaw? Why would I want a Jedi working for me?"

"For precisely the reason he laid out, you wanted a Jedi to get rid of me. That way you thought you could take my place as the Emperor's right hand or even possibly overthrow the Emperor. After all, I do have a dead Nightsister on the ground." Vader lifted his hand and began choking Tagge, "Explain to me why I do not just kill you where you stand."

Tagge immediately grasped at his throat, the invisible hand crushing his windpipe slowly. He finally choked out, "You have a Jedi in front of you my lord."

While Vader was dealing with Tagge, Naes pulled out his communicator and checked with Rhea, "What is the situation with you guys?"

"We are leaving the cell block and exiting through the new back door we gave Tagge, Tara and Astra should be on the Maverick in a couple of minutes."

"Good, slight change in plans, park the Knightfall on the east side and give the governor a new side entrance. Fath has been dealt with, but me and Vader are about to enter into some rather aggressive negotiations. I need to have a way to make a quick exit and getaway, be prepared to take off as soon as I am aboard. Also, have the Providence class that was supposed to target the castle assist against the Exactor."

"It has, apparently these new Imperator class Star Destroyers are stronger than originally thought. They quite possibly could be a match for one of the Trade Federation's bulk carriers."

Just then Vader released Tagge, "Pray that our paths do not cross again governor, or else I may not be as forgiving of you as I am today." With that he turned and began advancing on Naes.

"Uh Rhea, I need to let you go. I am about to have my hands full with an angry Sith Lord." Naes put away his comm link and faced Vader.

As he advanced, Vader threw out a taunt, "So the great and pure Naes Nemelc has a wife, does that not go against the Jedi Code?"

"What Jedi Code, between you and Sidious there is no Jedi Order anymore, much less a Code. The amazing thing, I have been married for about six years now. I knew another Jedi that was married, Anakin Skywalker, he and his wife Padme would have been married about four years now. I once had a vision of him and me both serving on the Council as co Grand Masters. The two of us old friends, our son's serving as troubleshooting Jedi Knights just like he and I did. This new Council allowed marriage for the Jedi."

Vader stopped for a moment, stunned. "And what of your wives, were they still alive?"

"Truthfully I do not know for sure, but in my vision I got the feeling that both wives were still alive. Not only was Anakin and I old friends, we both were very happy. I got the feeling that his wife was the current Chancellor. In fact, he, myself and Mace Windu worked together to defeat your current Master and we succeeded, at least we did in a vision I had a year ago. Unfortunately Anakin and Mace were both too arrogant to work together."

Vader growled and the exclaimed, "You have wasted enough of my time Jedi. Prepare to die."

Naes looked at him, "Yes, I see it there. You may try and defeat me Vader, but that defeat is not today." Naes could feel Rhea positioning the Knightfall on the east side, getting ready to open a door for him. All he had to do was buy himself a few more seconds. Now seemed like a good time to practice the new Force capability he had learned, Force Convection. Naes Force Jumped to right in front of Vader. "Surprised, most of your opponents try and flee, not me; at least not right now." Naes right hand then shot out and grasped Vader on the side of his arm just below his shoulder. According to Obi Wan, this area should still be flesh and bone. He began channeling heat and energy into his hand. Suddenly Vader's costume began to smoke and sizzle and he let out a scream.

Just then the entire castle seemed to rock, and an explosion could be felt. Dust and rock flew past them. This caused Naes, Vader, and the prostrate Tagge to all choke and cough. Naes looked at them all and said, "Sorry fellows, that's my ride, sorry I can't play anymore." He let go of Vader's arm, brought his hand up close to Vader's eye circuitry and gave a small jolt of Force Lightening. "This should cloud your vision Vader." Naes put just enough charge to fry the circuits on the eye sensors but not cause Anakin/Vader any undue pain.

He stepped back threw his hand in front of him and Force Pushed Vader across the room. Naes then looked down at Tagge and said, "As for you, if you ever come to my attention again, I will make you wish that you had died at Vader's hands. Are we understood?"

Tagge looked up at him and said, "We are not done Jedi."

"Yes we are actually. I am telling you now, drop it."

"I will not drop it; I will hunt you and your family down. From one end of the galaxy to the other I will hunt you down and make you pay."

Naes Force Jumped to the smoking hole in the side of the wall and looked at Tagge, "Have it your way governor. Pray that Vader takes care of you before I get around to it." With that, Naes Force Jumped to the side of Knightfall and bounded up the ramp. At the top of the ramp he hit the button to raise the ramp and them commed Rhea, "OK we are a go. Get us out of here and send the message to the remaining ships to bug out also. Take us home Rhea, take us home."

"Sure thing."

Naes found a chair and sat down and leaned back against the back. He would have to do something about Orman Tagge. That was for later; right now he just wanted to spend time with Astra and the kids.


	9. Chapter 9

**The Love of a Jedi II**

**Chapter Nine**

It had been a week since Astra's rescue from Governor Tagge. After rendezvousing with Tara and Astra in deep space, Naes and Astra took the Maverick to Dagobah to pick up the kids, sending the rest on to Corellia. Naes and Astra joined them with Naes Jr and Amalie on Corellia. As he was walking down the ramp to his home on Corellia, carrying Amalie Naes breathed in the clean crisp air and thought how wonderful life could be sometimes. He was home with his family around him. Over the course of the next week, Naes built for Tara and Naes Jr both a training lightsaber. Once Tara had her training saber, Rhea and Ezriel began teaching her the finer points of sparring and technique. It would be a few months before she would be able to think about facing a master swordsman like Naes, but she was getting the much needed practice.

At the same time, Naes Jr began working with training remotes. If they had been at the Jedi Temple, Naes Jr would have started those lessons six months earlier. Between the recent raid on the abandoned shipyards and the intel gained from the confrontation with the Exactor, Garm was reasonably happy. Rumor had it that Tagge was rather fortunate to have survived Vader's wrath. In fact, Orman Tagge had a new nickname, "The Blind Baron" from Vader robbing him of his sight.

There was a small stream running by the cabins that Naes and his small group stayed in. He was currently sitting outside on a rock next to the stream meditating. Apparently the time with the kids was good for Yoda, when Naes and Astra landed to pick them up; Yoda greeted Naes and Astra both with warmth and kindness. He had no cross words for Naes breaking the code and marrying. As the family was leaving, Yoda said "If ever the children need watching, please remember me."

Naes looked at Yoda and said, "Master Yoda, you are at the top of our list for watching the kids. Personally I think that it is good for them to have a bite of your famous Root Stew on occasion." With that comment, Naes Jr and Amalie both said "No" and ran up the ramp to strap in. Naes looked at Yoda and concluded with, "I am glad Master that they were not too much trouble. I am truly thankful for you watching over them while I saved Astra."

Astra looked at Yoda and said, "Master Yoda, I have only just met you, but thank you from the bottom of my heart for watching over my babies while Naes and his companions rescued me."

Yoda replied, "Thank you for helping Naes to remind me that Jedi help people. Safe voyages."

With those parting words, Naes and his family lifted off from Dagobah, leaving Yoda behind.

Astra looking back asked, "Naes are you sure that we have to leave Master Yoda behind on such a ghastly planet."

"Honey, you cannot feel it, Naes Jr and Amalie can to an extent and it is obvious to me, there is a strong dark side presence on the planet, Yoda uses that strong dark side presence to hide. My presence is as strong as Yoda's; I use a combination of things to keep my presence hidden. First I hide on a large population planet and I keep the majority of my presence masked. I am young enough that for me masking my presence is not that difficult. As a Jedi grows older, such a masking becomes more difficult, because it requires to a certain degree cutting ourselves off from the Force. In fact, our group would have already had to either split up or move to a former Sith world, such as Thule, Ziost, or Korriban if we did not all to a degree mask our presences. Plus, Yoda waits on Dagobah for his final Padawan to be mature enough to seek him out and receive the proper training in the ways of the Jedi."

"Who is this student?"

"That I cannot tell you, the identity has been entrusted to only me. If anything were to happen to me, I have given appropriate instructions to Rhea and Ezriel; naturally you and the children would be well cared for. I have created identities for you and the children and Ezriel in case something happens to me. It would fall to him to train the children to become Jedi."

As Naes began to return to himself from thinking back on his conversation with Astra on Dagobah, Ezriel approached him.

"Master Nemelc, something has appeared on the HoloNet that I think you should see."

Naes looked up at Ezriel and smiled, "Ezriel, we may not have had a Knighting ceremony, but you are Jedi Knight in your own right. You don't necessarily have to call me Master any longer. What is it you wish to show me?"

For a moment Ezriel looked flustered and then said, "I was trolling through some of the message forums of the HoloNet and saw a release addressed to a Master Nemelc from His Favorite Baron."

That immediately got Naes attention, especially considering the events of the past week. "What does Baron Tagge want this time? I am somewhat surprised that he would attempt to contact me in such a public arena."

"The good thing about these message forums is the anonymity one has."

"So, what does our friend the Baron have to say this time?"

"It reads, and I quote 'To my esteemed friend Naes Nemelc-You may have won our last round, but do not get too comfortable. I will win in the long run. Dathomir was just the opener. You should really check out the winter on Mandalore, it is absolutely exquisite. Yours Truly The Baron.'" Ezriel looked at Naes and asked, "What does all of this mean?"

"It means that Orman Tagge does not know when to give up, when he said that he would win in the long run, that means he will not stop until he is victorious. Dathomir is referring to Fath, he has learned his lesson about Nightsisters."

"What about winter on Mandalore?"

"That is easy as well, it means that he has hired bounty hunters to track me down, and more than likely these bounty hunters are Mandoa. Remember Ezriel some of the best bounty hunters for tracking Jedi are Mandoa. Why do you think Palpatine used Jango Fett as the clone template?"

"I never really thought about it."

"Looking back it is obvious, especially when you dig into Jango's past. He hated the Jedi, he used Mandoa's to train the ARC Troopers and provide most of the clones with basic training. Palpatine gave him the opportunity to create the perfect Jedi killing army. And at the right time, when the Jedi were scattered throughout the galaxy, leading clone troopers into battle, they were betrayed and gunned down by the very troops they were leading. He mentions winter, because he truly feels that this will be his final gambit, or it is my winter as it were in that I will be captured and brought back to him."

"What are you going to do about it?"

"I have a plan forming; I will need to talk to Garm though first. And before you say anything else, you are staying here. Provided that I do make it through and survive my encounter with Tagge, I will need to lie low for a few months, which means that I will need to stay away for from Corellia and you guys."

"What for?"

"Because when I get done, I will have stirred up a nest of gundark's like you would not believe. In the process it will give the Emperor and Vader all the ammunition that they will need for increasing the Fleet size. I am going to do something big and splashy and blame it on Separatist holdouts. But it will set back Tagge power and prestige by nearly twenty years. After this Orman Tagge will not even think about raising a hand against any of us ever again. Post the following message to the HoloNet for Tagge to see, 'I have seen your message dear Baron and wish to let you know that soon the hand of Providence will descend upon Tepasi and upon your palace.'"

"What do you mean by the message?"

"You will find out soon enough." Naes took his communicator from his belt, clicked it open and said, "Hello Garm, this is Naes, I need a fully crewed _Providence _class cruiser, droids only. Also as an fyi, Tepasi is about to get hit by a ton of duracrete. So if you want to make any raids elsewhere, this is the time to do it. I can also attest to the fact that the shipyards at Tepasi will be nothing but orbital debris in a short time frame as well. One other thing Garm, I will be away for at least six months. If my plan succeeds, I will need to lie low for several months until the heat has died down. As a courtesy, you might want to warn Bail Organa and Mon Mothma both to lie low." After that Naes clipped the communicator back to his belt and headed for his workshop. As he was doing so he said, "Ezriel, would you do me a favor and ask Astra to meet me in my workshop, I need to talk to her."

"Sure thing Master."

A few minutes later Astra walked into the workshop, Naes was standing at a small side table swapping out the memory chipset on his communicator. Astra said, "You know you could just run into town and have them do that for you."

Naes looked up and saw his wife's beautiful form; she had not changed that much in the ten years since they had first met. He turned to her; she stepped in close to him reaching her arms up to wrap themselves around his neck. He tilted his head down to make it easier on her, catching a whiff of her perfume. At the same time that she wrapped her arms around his neck, he put his hand on the back of her waist and drew her in a little closer. "You know I really missed you."

She said, "I know, so did I. What is it you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Astra dear, Ezriel just showed me a message board from Orman Tagge; he has apparently hired Mandoa bounty hunters to track me down. Because of that, I am going to have to leave for a while. I am going to go and put an end to his dreams of having a pet Jedi. Because it is going to be loud and splashy I will have to stay away for several months. I won't even be able to contact you on a regular basis. I will have to live on the run for a while."

"I just got you back, and now you are telling me that you have to leave."

"Astra, I love you and our kids more than life itself, this is for your protection. I am the target, I have to be the one that is hard to find."

He could tell by the way that her lip was pursed and the look in her eyes that even though she agreed with his assessment she was not happy about it; in fact if she could come up with a compelling argument for him to stay she would. She looked up at him, the fire in her eyes blazing, "OK, I do not like it, but I do understand. Now you promise me that you will be careful and not take any unnecessary risks. Are we clear?"

"Crystal."

"Good, you remember that."

With that she reached up and kissed him. Then her arms dropped from around his neck and she stepped back a couple of paces. He dropped his hand from her waist. She started to back up and leave, as she was doing so, Naes reached for her hand, she reached back their fingers intertwined and held onto each other for a split moment and then dropped away. He said, "I will come back hon, I can promise you that." She left to return to the house and Naes returned to his work setting up a new communicator, one that he could use for long distance communications while on the run.

A few days later Naes was at the abandoned shipyards near Tepasi, he was making the last of his preparations, the Maverick was stashed in a holding orbit in the outer cometary cloud of Tepasi, it was extremely rare for ships to venture out that far. As a rule, they jumped into the system and out of the system no more than a few thousand kilometers from the planned destination. Thus he should in theory be able to take a small escape pod from the cruiser to the Maverick and no one be the wiser.

He strapped himself into the seat, with the navigational controls at his fingertips. For this type of maneuver Naes did not trust droids. A few years back he had heard of an old smuggler tactic of riding a planets beacon in past orbital control. He was about to do something similar. The droids would handle all the weapons and shields. Naes counted down, and the ship jumped into hyperspace. He had to admit, it did feel good to once more sit in command of a capital ship. It wouldn't be beyond his capability to cook up a fake ident for a lieutenant-commander in the Imperial Navy, from there Naes could work his way up to Captain fairly quick. Maybe even as commander of a fighter wing. His only problem would be avoiding Vader and Palpatine; that and the small problem that he really was in the business to overthrow the Empire.

The beacon for orbital control was coming up, except Naes planned on going a ways further. He reached out in the Force, feeling the presence of everything around Tepasi. He planned on one of the most suicidal moves in the book. He was coming out of hyperspace inside the planet's atmosphere. Just the right moment, Naes threw the switch and exited hyperspace. Immediately the planet's gravity took hold of the ship and began to pull it in. "All engines forward, aim for Tagge Castle. Weapons hot, fire at all available targets. Shields full strength."

One of the bridge droids replied, "Sir, shields are unable to form, too much heat on the outer skin of the ship."

The ship began to build up speed in the mid reaches of the atmosphere and a wall of plasma began to surround it. This was going to be one hot ride; fortunately they could save energy by only having life support running on the bridge. Between the thickening of the atmosphere and the turbo laser fire, the ship was really beginning to shake, then Naes felt a shudder and suddenly the cruiser got a lot more difficult to handle. He knew what that was, the rear half of the ship had just broken free; shortly after the Battle of Coruscant Obi Wan said that when that happened to him and Anakin that he quipped, "At least we are still flying half a ship." Naes certainly could sympathize on that statement.

He reached out in the Force to get a feel for the ship; it really wanted to come apart. When Anakin steered his ship in, it was not taking any turbolaser fire like Naes was. In fact it came in with fireships putting out the worst of the fires; once more Naes did not have that kind of luxury. Naes reached out in the Force to hold the ship together, holding it's shatterpoints in one piece. He reached out to make sure that he was still on course for the castle. Naes came out of the Force trance long enough to double check the sensor readings. That is when he noticed that not too far from the castle was the primary planetary shield generators and control center. With that piece of news, it allowed Naes to make a snap decision as well as avoid complete destruction of the castle and it would still teach Tagge a lesson. He just had to get a little closer. The temperature of the bridge really began to climb; no shields meant the metal of the ship was taking the full plasmic brunt of everything. In addition to holding the ship together Naes had to divert some of his attention and created a cooling bubble of the Force around him.

Suddenly the bridge filled with turbolaser fire, plasma jumping through the holes in the ship like fiery jets of heat. The ships above in orbit must have finally got their bearings on him; when it came time to launch his escape pod that could create problems for him. It was getting time for him to make his escape. Naes walked over to the escape pod, and for a few minutes he took his attention off the bucking ship long enough to plot a course out and away from the cruiser. He leaned back in the crash couch, and the escape pod rocketed up and away from the cruiser at a forty five degree angle.

At just the right moment, Naes concentrated on the shatterpoints of the cruiser and it broke apart into several large pieces. Some pieces flying off and with guidance from Naes began hitting the command center for the planetary shields, leveling the entire area. Other large pieces began hitting the top of Tagge Castle, in the process scarring it and sending a very large message to Orman Tagge. Just to make sure he got the message, a small message cylinder landed just inside the castle grounds with a message from Naes to the governor.

In the message, it showed Naes standing on the bridge of the cruiser, "Good afternoon Governor. By the time you see this message; I will have already left Tepasi. First do not even bother trying to find me. I have decided to disappear so completely that even the renowned and vaunted Jango Fett could not find me; your Mandolorian's won't even be able to pick up a trace of me. The second and final thing is this; you will not come near me or any member of my family ever again. If you do, then I promise you that if you think that the repair bill from my previous visits to Tepasi was high, just try me. I am a fully trained Jedi, and since the fall I have dabbled some in what my former comrades would have called the dark arts. If I wanted to, I could level half of your planet, take out your entire extended family and bankrupt all of Tagge Holdings. Simple exchange, you leave me alone and I will leave you alone, are we clear? Your actions will tell me your answer. Good-bye Governor."

Naes shielded his presence from the fleet sensors that were trying to track him. Once he had achieved orbit, he chose the quietest route out to the cometary field and the Maverick. Once he was onboard the Maverick, he spent a few days in the cometary field, listening in to supposedly secure comm traffic. He wanted to be sure Tagge left Astra and the kids alone. Naes did not pick up anything strange. If fact it appeared that his threat against Tagge was taken to heart. Within a day of the attack on the capital Tagge was calling off the bounty hunters. Naes stuck around anyway just to make sure. After three days he set course for the abandoned encampment on Thule. Naes needed to hide his presence, and for some reason he was drawn to the Sith World he had camped at before. Perhaps he could make a discovery to better understand the Sith and the Force.


	10. Chapter 10

**The Love of a Jedi II**

**Chapter Ten**

Right after sending his rather pointed message to Orman Tagge, Naes headed straight for the abandoned Sith world known as Thule. It was far enough off the beaten track that he would not be noticed, and with a cloak of darkness surrounding the planet, he could meditate completely without trying to hide his presence. He really needed to meditate upon and think things through. His dream of years past still called out to him, a chance to defeat Palpatine and Vader both. Naes landed at his abandoned base from six months earlier. He had so many questions, questions about the nature of the Force, questions of Light and Dark; questions about himself. There were times that he felt as if he were on the cusp of taking a next step forward. His potential was the same as Yoda's. In some ways he had surpassed Yoda, but it was more a matter of not surpassing Yoda as being willing to use supposed Darkside techniques; such as using the Force to apply energy and warmth to create burns. Naes used the technique on occasion to do spot welding. He had developed the fine control to really regulate the Force Energy balls and Force Lightening that he could generate. Like Yoda, he had learned how to absorb a great deal of the energy and to redirect it.

After a week on Thule, Naes felt the Force tugging him away from this dark place. Before taking action, he decided to deeply meditate upon matters. While he was meditating, he thought back on the history of the Jedi and their interminable war with the Sith through the millennia. Naes by his very nature was one that consumed information and knowledge. If he was not practicing his swordsmanship or whispering sweet nothings to the Republic's info net, he was in the archives reading all he could about the ancient Jedi and their history. That is where he really first noticed the dogmatism that had gripped the Order. Today the Order never taught anything about Revan other than that he fell to the Darkside for apparently the best of intentions-To save the Galaxy from an evil greater than the Mandalorian' s. Very little if anything was ever brought up about his redemption and saving the Republic after his student and best friend Darth Malak turned on him. That is not even counting his subsequent disappearances and reappearances. Naes had heard stories that Revan was able to balance on the knife edge between Light and Darkness; something that in this era the Jedi would have scoffed at.

That was it, Naes thought. He needed to go to the final place that Revan was seen alive. He needed to go to Tython, homeworld of the Je'daii, the precursor to the Jedi Order. That made good sense; he had spent time on a dark world, in the heart of the old Sith Empire. He knew that there was no way to visit Ilum or Ossus, those worlds were way to publicly linked with the Jedi to be of use to him right now. Tython on the other hand had not been visited in a couple millennia. It was also in the Deep Core, very few ventured into the Deep Core. In fact, very few Jedi in Naes day knew of Tython. Most people, Jedi included incorrectly assumed that Ossus was in fact the Jedi homeworld, if Jedi could be said to have a homeworld or planet of origin. Naes started packing up his small encampment or base. This time though he wanted to be sure and not leave anything behind. He was done using Thule as a hidden base. Tython was much more centrally located in the galaxy and had the advantage of being nominally in the Light.

When he arrived at Tython, he first noticed its two moons, Ashla and Bogan, a moon of Light and a moon of Darkness, with Tython standing for the balance between the two. Naes let the Force lead him to where he was to establish his camp. As he circled the planet, first he was drawn to mid-latitudes in the northern hemisphere. Then it seemed as if he had an irresistible urge to land in a small valley with a river cutting through it. Naes found a small glade and not too far from the glade, the opening to a cave. Naes set up a small base camp for the night and gathered his supplies. That night, he felt a groundquake nearby in addition to a massive windstorm. The wind was so powerful that Naes had to use the Force to hold his tent into place and not fly away. It was becoming readily apparent that Tython was hostile to anyone that was not Force Sensitive. This would make an excellent training ground for any that were Force Sensitive. They would be forced into developing their Force Sensitivity and being one with the Force. On the flip side, a place like this would too dangerous for non-Force Sensitives to live on.

Over the course of a week, Naes spent his time exploring his surroundings, reading and studying further the copy of the more esoteric Jedi histories and of the Republic, plus time meditating on the meaning of the Force and his place in it. The dangers of the place certainly reinforced for Naes why the Jedi had abandoned Tython. That plus Coruscant was much closer to the center of galactic affairs. He was having a hard time understanding why Revan would come here though. After a week, Naes was exploring deeper into the cave than he had gone before. Deep in the cave Naes could feel a balancing of the Force. There seemed to be something drawing him in deeper into the cave.

Finally he came upon a grand chamber and on the opposite end of the chamber was a set of ten foot tall double doors; each door four feet wide and nearly a foot thick of solid rock. In the center bisected by the doors was the glyph for Revan in ancient Sith. Naes walked up to the doors, other than the glyph they were as smooth as polished stone with no hand holds or any other indicator of how to open them. Before proceeding any further, Naes decided that he would camouflage and hide his ship and move his camp from the mouth of the cave to the grand chamber.

The next day he stood before the doors, determined to make his way in. Figuring that since there were no apparent means to push or pull the doors; Naes figured that it would require a Force-practitioner to open the doors. His first thought was to try the simplest and most direct route to opening a door. He stood before the doors and began to use Force Push against them. Try as he might Naes could not budge the doors. He was using all of his strength pushing against them and nothing was happening. He finally gave up pushing; he had exerted himself so much in the Force that he stood in the middle of the chamber gasping for breath.

Naes took some time to eat lunch, clean up his dishes and meditated on the mystery of the door. He then decided that perhaps he was going about things the wrong way. Instead of pushing, he needed to pull on the doors. Once more Naes positioned himself in front of the doors and began to pull at them with the Force. This time, he thought he could feel the doors giving slightly. It seemed as if they wanted to be pulled apart, but he was going about it the wrong way. He gave it one last try to pull them apart, the doors shifted slightly and then once more returned to their closed position.

Naes knew then that he was going to need to take a different tack at opening the doors; time to meditate once more, he decided that he would meditate on what he knew of Revan's life. He was one of the more infamous Jedi in galactic history. When the Mandalorian War started, the Jedi were hesitant about involving themselves in a war that did not involve the Sith. The Jedi Council decided not to involve itself and to maintain neutrality in the war. As the atrocities committed by the Mandalorians began piling up so too did the voices calling for action by the Jedi. Revan was one of those leading voices. He eventually began to unofficially lead some Jedi into battle against the Mandalorians. The Council finally come around and granted its blessing for Jedi to fight in the war. During the course of the war, Revan and his apprentice Malek both began to resort to ever harsher techniques and strategies. The two became as bad as the enemy they were fighting; most Jedi point to this as being when Revan began sliding to the Dark Side. The truth was Naes could understand that reasoning, too many Jedi had gone to the Dark Side during the course of the Clone Wars. War brings out the worst in everybody.

A light bulb went off in Naes head, Revan walked both sides. He claimed Jedi as his calling at the end, but had no problems using dark side powers. Perhaps that was the key to opening the doors, using a power that was inherently dark. He stood away from the doors and called upon and struck the doors using Force Lightening. Interesting thing for him, he really did not feel any particular rage or other dark emotion when calling on and using Force Lightening. The lightening crackled over and around the doors. The doors groaned, as if they wanted to move but could not quit move. That told Naes that he was on the right track for cracking this particular puzzle. Not so much using what some would consider a more blatant dark power, as using a subtle power; such as generating heat with his hand. Naes stood in front of the doors and reached out with both of his hands, one on each door and began channeling Force energy into the doors. The doors shuttered for a moment and then began to glow blue; after that they began to pull open; Naes backed away from the opening doors. As they opened completely, the next room came into view.

Centered in the room was a pedestal that stood five feet tall. On the pedestal was a nearly foot square pyramid topped off by a cube of similar dimensions. The play on traditions was not lost on Naes. Sith Holocron were traditionally pyramidal in shape and Jedi Holocron were either polyhedral or a square in shape. Sith Holocron were typically easier to activate, some Jedi Holocron required the crystal structure be realigned by moving or shifting the different pieces with the Force. The message from Revan was clear, to Naes at least. Sith and Jedi teaching could be made to coexist in their simpler forms. All was one in the Force. He stepped around the pedestal, closely examining the holocron from all sides with his eyes. As he suspected, there were no obvious way to activate the device. That meant that it had to be activated using the Force.

He closed his eyes and examined everything around him using the Force. Naes could feel the crack in the structure, halfway along the top of the square and at the juncture of the pyramid and the square; he then felt the half pressure plate in two of the points of the square. Using the Force, Naes lifted the square off the pyramid and then with it floating in midair pulled the square apart rotated the pieces ninety degrees, creating what appeared to be two equilateral triangles meeting each other at their points and then balancing that point on the pyramid. There was an audible click as everything locked into place. And with that, the lights of the room darkened and a pillar of light appeared above the point. A medium sized human with a mask appeared. Naes recognized immediately that it was Revan later in his life. The figure spoke, "I am Revan, Jedi Knight, Sith Lord, and exile of the Republic. Who are you and why have you sought my holocron?"

From those words, Naes knew this to be a very sophisticated holocron. Legend had that during his days as a Sith Lord Revan had created a Sith Holocron that was probably destroyed eons ago. This holocron was one of those with an interactive gatekeeper. When in the course of downloading ones teachings and views, the more sophisticated also downloaded the memory patterns of the gatekeepers. Thus preserving that person at that point in time; Naes replied "I am Naes Nemelc; a Jedi some three thousand years after you."

"Tell me Jedi Nemelc, what brings you to Tython? When this Holocron was created, Tython was not much more than a backwater planet. What of it now."

"Master Revan, Tython now is abandoned. I came here seeking guidance from the Force. The Force compelled me to park my ship near this cave."

"Knowing what you needed the Force does. For some reason it has directed you here to my holocron. A holocron hidden away until a successor to me comes along. What do you wish to know?"

Naes stood for a moment and thought about Revan's inquiry. "Of late I have begun to feel that the Jedi have lost their way. They were more concerned about politics and being dutiful to the Galactic Senate, even when such duties led to abuses and injustices. I have also begun to feel that the Order was becoming too dogmatic. If your view differed from that of the Council, you were automatically deemed a heretic. The only Master that was able to follow his own path was Qui Gon Jinn, and that is because despite his rather unorthodox nature, he had the respect of the Council."

The holo of Revan looked thoughtful for a moment, "It is so nice to see that some things do not change about a Jedi Council. Is the Council still as reticent about involving itself in Republic affairs?"

"Until the fall of the Jedi, the Council was wedded to the hip of the Senate. Of course, during the last Sith War, 1,000 years ago for me; the Council practically disbanded the Senate. Often times the Chancellor was in fact a Jedi Master. After the Ruusan Reformation, things changed. Jedi gave up military ranks, training was centralized on Coruscant, to help do away with a reappearance of the Sith. Unfortunately, what we did not know was that the Sith Order had once more adopted the Rule of Two and had gone underground. This is also when Jedi began taking young children from their homes in the galaxy. We became an arm of the Supreme Chancellor and of the Judicial Branch. With the Separatist crisis, a clone army was created specifically for the Jedi to lead."

"What led to such involvement with the Republic?"

"About a thousand years after your final disappearance, a series of wars took place known as the New Sith Wars, this period of warfare lasted one thousand years. By the end, the Jedi had for all intents completely taken over the Republic. We controlled the Senate and the military. We were the de facto rulers of the Republic. At the end of the war, with the Sith seeming gone for all time, the Republic reformed itself. Did away with its naval and starfighter commands as well as. The galaxy was at peace, the Jedi took on the role of peacekeepers and protectors; tying ourselves to the Republic and the Chancellor's Office."

Revan smiled and said, "Let me guess, this Separatist Crisis was instigated by the Sith, hiding in plain sight using the Rule of Two. I helped institute a similar rule in my time. The Rule of Two helps to concentrate the Darkside, creating a semi-stable ruling clique. Any more than two and you will start to create schisms and factions, weakening the Sith Order."

"Let me ask you this then, could there be an entity known as a Light Sith, take the less dark teachings of the Sith and turn them to the Light?"

"During the Cold War, 3600 years ago there was a splintering among the Sith, where some subscribed to being Light Sith. The Dark Council hunted down and destroyed such ones. I will tell you though that the Light Side and the Dark Side are more closely entwined and intermingled than anyone can imagine. There is not this nice neat line of demarcation between the two."

"I have often wondered upon that very subject myself. That there may not be a Light and Dark, but a Whole"

"Careful, the most die-hard Jedi Council member and your most die-hard Sith Lord both will tell you that such a thought was heresy and impossible. For the Jedi, this thinking acts as a protection, for then they are not tempted to use the Dark Side teachings or techniques. After all, who would purposely go and do something evil, after being taught good their entire lives. True, late in one's youth they have that curiosity to dabble, but the Council keeps such a tight lid on things pertaining to the Dark Side that it is nearly impossible to find the information, and then most Jedi outgrow that curiosity with time and maturity. I would also bet that the Council tells everyone from the youngest to the oldest, that once you start down the path of the Dark Side, that it will forever dominate your destiny or that you will be turned into some sort of Sith Monster."

Naes looked the image of Revan, and said "You are correct on so many accounts. Tell me Master Revan, will you teach me to walk that line between the Light and Dark?"

The image sighed, "What you are asking is not something easily accomplished. I have the knowledge that I could impart. One big question is do you have the wisdom to attempt making that journey? Meditate you should upon the Force before embarking upon such a journey, and I must think on things, before deciding whether or not to train you and how much training I should give. Very few people are able to walk that line, some will fall away to the Darkness and others will walk in the Light."

Naes could not argue with the wisdom displayed by the hologram, "I shall meditate however long it takes to come to a correct decision."

"Until then Naes Nemelc." With those words the hologram disappeared, though the Holocron remained in an opened position. Naes turned around and left the Holocron chamber, striding past the doors and with a simple gesture closed them. He proceeded on to his small camp site. Once there he fixed himself a meal and cleaned up his mess and found a small spot that was relatively flat and began applying his breathing exercises, so as to achieve a deep meditative trance in the Force. Time seemed to slip away, as well as all conscious thought. Naes began looking deeper into himself than he ever had before. He was making a galaxy altering decision in choosing to learn from Revan. He needed to be sure that he made the right choice.


	11. Chapter 11

**The Love of a Jedi II**

**Chapter Eleven**

Naes spent the next several days meditating on whether or not he should accept training from Revan. He was certainly aware of the reputation the Jedi wanted to paint about Revan. But, he had also read the historical records about him as well. Finally after much thinking on the subject, Naes decided that if Revan would train him, that he would accept it. He made his way to the chamber where Revan's Holocron was. "Revan, I have decided that I do wish for you to train me."

Having left the holocron powered up, Revan's avatar was not only aware of the passage of time but also could appear at will. Revan appeared, "Jedi Naes Nemelc, it heartens me to see that you took time to meditate upon your decision, I have taken the time and have decided that I will conditionally train you. My hesitation stems from the fact that after receiving some of the training that you may not be able to walk the knife's edge and fall to the Dark Side."

"Do what you feel necessary Master Revan, I will tell you that I am one of the few practioner's of a lightsaber fighting technique known as Vaaped, which in essence forms a superconducting loop with the Dark Side, I am adept at the art of energy transference, absorption, and redirection."

"I see, so you have already begun to delve into such things. You have already begun your training, but it is a good thing that you have sought me out. I will serve as your guide and help you learn how to walk in shadows. The first thing you must do is to stop thinking of the Force as either Light or Dark, there is only The Force. The Force is life, and life is growth, anything that grows changes. Life bore death and from death life is nourished; you have seen that destruction comes before rejuvenation; pain before healing. With people there is neither absolute good nor is there absolute evil, there was only life, only change and growth, suffering and joy; death and rebirth. There was only the Force. Let me ask you, when is it that you find it easiest to touch the Force? When you are calm, at peace and centered or when you are angry?"

"Personally, it is easiest when I am calm and centered. When I am calmest and the most centered in the Force is when I am at my best. There have been occasions that I have used what are considered Dark Side powers in the heat of battle, specifically Force Lightening."

"What were the circumstances when you used Force Lightening?"

"I had been sent by the Jedi Council along with my partner Rhea Sirgon to capture a Sith Lord known as Darth Tryanus, also known to the galaxy at large as Count Dooku. During the course of the duel he had injured my partner and was making his escape. Out of frustration in an attempt to capture him I used Force Lightening. If I could have captured him there was a very real possibility-so we thought at the time-that we could end the war. In a recent duel against the latest Sith Lord, Darth Vader I used convection to temporarily disable him, along with a small jolt of Force Lightening."

"In either instance, did you feel anger?"

"No, both times I was focused on accomplishing my mission. With Vader because I knew that he was responsible for leading the attack on the Jedi Temple and for personally killing many younglings, I could have been tempted to exact a penalty from him, but I refrained from doing so."

"Interesting, then you have begun to realize that with the Force, it is not necessarily that a power is inherently Light or Dark, but rather that what are your feelings and intentions at the time that makes that power Light or Dark."

"Yes, I had begun to suspect that was the case; even though official Jedi doctrine says otherwise."

"Jedi and Sith because of their millennia long struggle against one another have forgotten these things. Due to the inherent hostility toward one another they have staked out as their dogma and doctrine polar opposite views. Life and the Force are somewhere in the middle, a balance of the two. Jedi claim there is no emotion and the Sith claim that passion is the path to enlightenment. Yet life without emotion is no life and yet life ruled by passion is wrong as well. One needs to balance the two in their life. That does not mean that you should not follow a moral code, in fact it is more important that you have a moral code, because you will face greater temptation to use your additional power, quite possibly to other's detriment. In fact the course of wisdom is in learning when not to use your power."

"Why is that?"

"Everytime the Jedi and Sith engage in one of their many wars with each other, what inevitably happens is that the common everyday people of the galaxy are the ones to pay the price."

Naes was quiet for a moment, "Yes, I know. It is something that I have wrestled with myself. The problem is if Jedi do nothing, then you get a situation similar to what we have today; the Sith dominating everybody and everything. I personally could not live with myself without at least attempting to rectify the situation. I do my very best to prevent any innocent from getting caught in the crossfire."

"Interesting Naes, and who may I ask do you classify as not being innocent?"

"Those who give their support to Palpatine and his regime; those that step on the common people and in their own way are cruel and vindictive. Tarkin and Tagge are two that come to mind. Force users are not the only ones who have cornered the market on evil. Regular people are just as likely to engage in such behavior."

"So, where do you draw the line? I can understand standing up against another Force user, to stop their tyranny. What about people like Tarkin and Tagge? They can cause problems for the galaxy at large?"

"My first reaction is to backstop and provide support and let the proper authorities handle them."

"Just as you say the Jedi Order did for a millennia?"

Naes stopped and thought about that for a moment. "I see your point; the Jedi allowed the galaxy at large to handle its own affairs and provided support to them. But they never foresaw the Sith subverting the very institutions meant to keep evil people at bay. Even if they had, they could not make a move without the approval of the Chancellor and the Senate. And then the worst nightmare of anyone came to pass, a Sith Lord was elected Chancellor and had secretly created an army of clones with the ultimate goal of scattering Jedi across the galaxy and killing them."

Revan nodded and said, "Let's table this discussion for another time. While a prudent course of action is warranted, first you would have to be in a position to re-establish the Jedi Order in order to implement any changes."

"It would not have to be a new Jedi Order. Years ago I had a Force Dream of being leader of a group Force sensitive's that called ourselves Light Sith. In that vision, I defeated the Emperor and two of my followers defeated Vader. Afterwards I took the throne for myself and began instituting changes throughout the Empire to rectify some of the inequities caused by the Emperor. I also issued a blanket amnesty for all Jedi and invited them to join the government in rebuilding the galaxy."

"What a tempting vision that would be. I am surprised that you have not pursued it already."

"I swore to Master Yoda that I would never pursue the vision, I made a promise to myself as well that I would never delve into the Dark Side, before his fall Vader was a promising Jedi full of life and untapped strength and potential."

"Naes, technically you have already broken your promise to yourself, by dabbling in the powers you already have dabbled in. By coming to me for training in walking the knife edge between Light and Dark, breaks that promise as well. Tell me, have you ever heard of the Je'daii Order? You must now something of them, after all Tython is the homeworld of the Je'daii"

"I know of them, an order of legend from the ancient mists of time. I know that Tython is an important world to the Jedi."

"The Je'daii, as with the Gray Jedi, Gray Paladin's and even the Order of Revan all believed to some degree or another in the totality of the Force and its balance and the intentions of one when using Force abilities."

"I am familiar with the Gray sects and what you describe sounds similar to the Potentium view held by some Jedi of the last hundred years. Prominent among them in the Order was Vergere. She was a rebellious rogue known to study doctrine not approved of by the Jedi. She disappeared about eleven years ago. There were some rumors that she was dabbling in Sith teachings."

Revan chuckled, "The same thing was said about me as well. You yourself said that the Order did everything it could to keep my name from being known. I did turn Sith at one point. Thankfully some within the Order did not give up on me and after my capture were able to bring me back. And because of that, I was able to defeat my former apprentice, Darth Malak. After those experiences I learned to walk the knife's edge between shadow and light. Be warned, very few can completely walk the edge. Now, let's begin some training."

_**A few hours later…**_

After a few hours of training by Revan, Naes was tired. He stood before Revan's image and said, "Master Revan I must thank you for training me. In regards to our discussion earlier, I have much to think about and ponder over."

"Go Naes, I am glad that you wish to do more thinking over things. It shows me that you are not one to rush into things foolishly. I must shut down power to my holocron in order to conserve energy myself."

As Naes returned to his camp area just outside of Revan's Holocron Chamber, he began thinking about his discussion with Revan. Naes knew that he could never embrace the Dark Side, but from personal experience and discussing things with Revan he truly began to wonder if there really was a Dark Side. Perhaps there was merit to the Potentium viewpoint, where it was one's intentions that mattered. But Naes knew that without there being some sort of moral compass, intentions could become misaligned and open the doorway to horrific actions all using the excuse that you had good intentions or that you meant well. He fixed himself a meal and after cleaning up, found a flat spot that he could sit and meditate.

Naes meditated through most of the night; after catching a few hours of sleep. Upon awaking he had decided on a course of action. He went to his small transmitter and opened a line to Corellia; he needed to contact either Ezriel or Rhea. Presently Rhea appeared on the monitor. "Rhea, good to see you; I hope that you are doing well."

"Naes, good to see you; what can I do for you?"

"Rhea, I need for you, Ezriel and Tara to all three come to Tython in the Deep Core. Come prepared for a mission to Coruscant. Also, bring my slicing equipment. I have several avians that I need to deal with on Coruscant. Get here with all due haste."

"What about Astra?"

"Tell Astra that I miss her tremendously, I have hit upon a plan that will allow us to live in freedom together, but it will require a year or so to fully implement."

"We will leave as soon as possible."

"See you then. Naes out" With that, Naes cut the connection, took a breath and let it out. He was committed from this point forward. He then returned to Revan's chamber and activated the holocron.

"Naes how are you doing?"

"I am doing well, I have made a decision, and three companions of mine will be joining me in a couple days. You need not worry about training them as well. I will handle that myself. Until then, I need you to teach me not so much Force Techniques, but more about balance of the Force."

"Naes, first you need to understand, in this galaxy there is plenty of evil to go around without the Sith adding to it. Your actions define who you are; whether you are good or evil. The Jedi for years acted as a balance to the darkness of life. Certain emotions work better with certain Force powers. One question, when do you find it easiest to access the Force? When you are at peace or when you are angry?"

"When I am at peace; a part of me fears the consequences should I lose control to anger."

"As well you should. You have seen the consequences when a Force user loses control. The results are detrimental to the general citizenry. By nature Naes, you seek the good. You have concern for your fellow sentient's. You have already un-knowingly been seeking balance with the Force."

"Thank you Revan"

A couple days later the Knightfall landed on Tython with Rhea, Ezriel, and Tara. Naes walked up to them and said, "It is good to see all of you. How are you guys doing? How are Astra and the children?"

Rhea answered, "We are doing well, and Astra and the kids miss you terribly. She could not understand why she and the kids could not come with us."

"Rhea, I wish they could have come, however Tython is very dangerous for non-Force Users. Though, if our mission is successful, they will be joining us here."

"What is our mission? Why are we going to Coruscant?"

"First, I want to show you something." With that Naes led the group to Revan's chamber. They all stood in awe of the massive doors and then saw the hybrid looking holocron. Naes brushed the holocron with the Force and it activated, revealing Revan. "May I present the only known surviving holocron of Revan."

The image of the Revan spoke up then, "Welcome to my chamber friends of Naes. It is nice to make your acquaintance."

Naes proceeded to make the introductions, "Revan please meet Rhea, Ezriel and Tara. Now then that all of you are here I have an important announcement to make. As all of you know, the Jedi Order was all but destroyed by Palpatine and Vader. We all are agreed that the Order and the Code had some flaws in them. Due to the circumstances that we find ourselves in, I am hereby announcing the founding of the Order of Balance. I invite you three to become founding members with me. For now, we will keep things informal. As we grow and gain new members we will take the time to create a Code. All of you know that over the past few years that I had begun to suspect that in reality there was only the Force as a whole, not a Dark Side and Light Side. As part of that, I propose a mission to Coruscant to the site of the Jedi Temple so that we can send a new coded signal out to the few remaining Jedi in hiding to come to us if they wish and become the nucleus of a new Order."


	12. Chapter 12

**The Love of a Jedi II**

**Chapter Twelve**

As soon as the words were out of Naes mouth, the room broke into chaos; Rhea and Ezriel both talking to him at the same time. Naes held up his hand and said, "Quiet, one at a time please."

Rhea spoke up, "What do you mean you are starting your own order?"

Ezriel added, "Master Nemelc that is heresy."

Naes looked at Rhea and asked, "Let me ask you this Rhea, would you say that someone that used Force Lightening was using the Dark Side?"

"Yes, that would be as much of a given as possible."

"OK, would you say that Master Fisto was evil? What about me?"

"Of course not, why do you ask?"

"I read a report by Master Fisto, about a time that he used Force Lightening to save a little girl. I used it once myself."

"When did you use it?"

"Remember the mission to capture Count Dooku?"

"Of course, why do you ask?"

"After you were knocked out there in his Great Hall, as he was getting away, I used Force Lightening in an effort to stop him. Unfortunately I missed and he still escaped. Now after hearing these instances, would you consider me or Master Fisto as being evil?"

"Absolutely not; you are a genuinely good person. You are one of the few people I know that does not allow the ends to justify the means. You set about to accomplish as many of your goals as possible by doing what is right. Even in the middle of a war or a battle there were certain lines that you refused to cross."

"Thank you Rhea, that means a lot to me." He then turned and looked at Ezriel, "What of you? What is your choice?"

Ezriel looked at Naes and said, "Master, as long as I have known you, you have been honest and truthful to me and always looked out for my best interests as best as you could. You have imparted your knowledge and wisdom to me freely and without reservation; and in the process encouraged me to think for myself. Whenever possible you have explained to me the reasons for your decisions. I have seen for myself that the Order made mistakes and I recognize as well that there is no Order in existence now. I will follow you as well."

"For all intents and purposes, yes the Jedi Order is extinct. The Emperor and Darth Vader have done a pretty thorough job of hunting our brethren down. I will tell both of you this, there are two Jedi Masters still alive and I know the locations of both of them."

Rhea looked at Naes and said, "Ezriel and I have suspected you knew the whereabouts of Master Yoda, just from comments that Naes Jr and Amalie have made. Who else but Master Yoda would try to feed younglings Root Stew? Who is the other master?"

"The other master is Master Kenobi. You both know them, neither of them would agree with my actions, and would discourage you from following me on this endeavor. What you two may not know is that Darth Vader is in reality Anakin Skywalker. Palpatine was the Sith Lord that the Council was trying to find. Rhea, you know that years ago I had a Force Vision in which I became the leader of the Order of the Light Sith and in turn defeated Vader and Palpatine. After honing some skills with Master Revan and having a few discussions with him about the Jedi and the Force I have decided that the time is right for some changes to be made. I am establishing a new Order, hopefully one that will not be as dogmatic and inflexible as previously."

Rhea looked at Naes and asked, "So what is your plan?"

Naes smiled, "Simple, we are going to Coruscant and reprogramming the automated signal that Obi Wan had originally sent out at the birth of the Empire."

Ezriel gasped, "You are proposing that we go to the heart of the Empire, the Emperor's planetary stronghold; home to countless Stormtroopers not to mention two Sith Lords and reprogram a secret signal?"

"Sure, what's difficult about that? The key is staying unnoticed."

Rhea continued, "Saying that we succeed in that; what is your goal then?"

"We reprogram the signal to direct any remaining Jedi to us. Also while on Coruscant, I will take the time to hack into the Imperial Navy network and plant a few more bugs and surveillance programs. Any Jedi that seek us out will be vetted and once they pass muster will be given the opportunity to join our order and receive additional training. My ultimate goal is to overthrow the Emperor and Vader both; similar to what I saw in my vision. Also, we need to start to be on the lookout for any children born of Jedi and start training them; with one major difference-we will not take children from their families. Once established and in control, we will find a way to include families with the training of children."

The three looked at Naes and at each other; Rhea spoke once more and said, "We are in."

"Excellent, you three go to the Maverick and start prepping for leaving and going to Coruscant."

Ezriel asked, "What are you going to do?"

"I will join you in a few minutes, but first I have a few questions for Master Revan."

Naes watched them leave and then turned back to the holocron and said, "Master Revan, I want to thank you for the instruction you have given me. I have one final request from you."

The image of Revan considered Naes for a few seconds and spoke, "If it is within my power, I will do it."

"In my vision, I saw that during the battle with the Emperor he used several mental assaults against me. Before confronting him in real life, I must be able to withstand such assaults. However Jedi are no longer trained against such things. Do you know where I can gain the knowledge to withstand that sort of attack?"

Revan looked at him for a moment and with great sadness said, "I learned how to defend against such assaults to a small degree when I faced the Sith Emperor. When you return, I will show you what I know. Eventually to truly master the defense you will need to travel to Koriban, to the Valley of the Dark Lords. There you will gain the knowledge that you seek. I warn you though, such a trip is dangerous. If anyplace in the galaxy could be said to be filled with darkness and be called a truly evil place, it is Koriban. Many that have gone there have been driven insane by the dark presences."

Naes answered, "I do not make the request lightly, the galaxy is covered in darkness, the Force is out of balance. When I go there, it will be to learn how to defend against Palpatine's mental assaults."

Revan smiled at Naes and said, "May the Force be with you." With that Naes left the chamber to join his friends.

Several hours later, the Maverick was approaching Coruscant. Naes was at the controls, with Ezriel at his side. Naes figured he might as well let him get some practice in. Besides, Naes was busy uploading a new fake ID for the Maverick. "OK, the ship's name is now 'Dewback' my name is Olee Starstone; the four of us are an extended family, Ezriel and I are brothers with Rhea and Tara our cousins. We are a fairly well off family from Tattooine coming to Coruscant for a vacation, sightseeing and shopping."

Rhea asked, "What is the plan? There is no way that we can just stroll into the former Jedi Temple and go to the basement and alter the signal."

Naes looked at her and said, "We don't have to. That signal was discovered about a year ago. What most people don't know is that all Jedi signals operate on a sub-frequency on the HoloNet carrier signal. All I have to do is hack into the HoloNet and upload a dataspike the HoloNet will once more become a carrier for Jedi signals; and any Jedi transceiver will pick up my new message. And the beauty of it is that I can program it to exclude a certain transceiver subset. Meaning that I can choose who will not receive the altered message."

"Who do you not want to receive it?"

"I don't want the receiver for Anakin Skywalker to receive it, as well as Master Yoda and Master Kenobi."

"There has to be a drawback to the rest of the plan, nothing is ever that easy."

"You're right; the best place to upload is in the Imperial Command Communications building."

Tara spoke up, "It would almost be easier to upload the dataspike from the Imperial Palace. Imperial Command is going to be locked down so tight that a flitnat could not get in without someone knowing about it."

"True, so first Ezriel and I are going to find some disguises for ourselves and sneak into Imperial Command."

Ezriel spoke up, "I thought you wanted to avoid uploading any bugs on Coruscant because that would eventually lead to us being locked out of the system?"

"Normally I wouldn't, but I have been working on a worm program for a year that will piggyback on my earlier worm and should be so well programmed that even the best security experts won't see it for a while, and hopefully by that time we will have already eliminated the Emperor and Vader. One other thing, remember that the Emperor is a Sith Lord, that means first of all keep yourselves dampened, try not to use the Force unless it is absolutely necessary. And obviously, no lightsabers; we don't want to start a panic. This is Coruscant; the Emperor has had two years to make the entire planet think that the Jedi tried to assassinate him and disfigured him."

Rhea looked at him and said, "Where were you and Ezriel going to find disguises?"

Naes said, "Dex's"

"What about Tara and I? What do you want us to do?"

"I need the two of you to sit tight here on the Maverick, Ezriel and I might have to make a quick exit."

Rhea looked at Naes and said, "Naes, Ezriel is a better pilot than I am. Are you sure you want him going with you and not staying on the Maverick?"

"Normally I would agree with you Rhea, besides you are extremely talented with a lightsaber, the problem is that the Empire has the unspoken chauvinism and women are extremely rare in the Imperial military. Thus if you went in with me, we would look extremely out of place. And that would draw attention to us, whereas if Ezriel and I went in, standard Imperial flag officer and his aide."

An hour later Naes and Ezriel slipped into Dex's place using the back entrance. Using the stealth techniques honed over the years as a Jedi that was often sent into the field he and Ezriel slipped in without being noticed and made their way to Dex's office. Naes knew that Dex usually went to his office about this time to take care of some paperwork. He opened the door to the office and found it empty; that was alright he and Ezriel would wait. He signaled Ezriel to step with him behind the door. A few minutes later Naes could hear a being shuffling along the hallway leading to the office. Naes reached out lightly with the Force just enough to get a feel for who was approaching. It felt like Dex, but something was off about him, he was radiating worry. Naes frowned and opened himself up more to see if anyone was with Dex, fortunately he seemed to be alone.

Dex walked into his office and shut the door, with that Naes stepped out from behind the door and said, "Hello Dex. How are you doing?"

Dex jumped from being startled and turned around and saw Naes and Ezriel. "Naes, how are you doing?" At the same time he stepped forward and embraced Naes.

"I am doing well; it is good to see you."

Dex stepped back and motioned Naes and Ezriel to follow him. He stepped to the back wall of his office, where Naes knew there was a secret room-the back office as it were. Dex touched the hidden activator and a portion of the wall swung away, into the room hidden behind it. The trio stepped through and the door shut, leaving them in the room. Ezriel looked around and said, "I never knew this was here." He looked at Naes and asked, "Did you know this was here?"

"Yes, right after I started seeing Astra, I approached Dex about doing some work on the side. When I did that work, it was almost always in here." He turned and looked at Dex and asked, "When you were approaching your office, I could feel that you were deeply worried about something. Is there anything we can help you with?"

"I am alright; just the normal concerns of living on an occupied planet, the regular police are steadily being replaced with Stormtroopers. Virtually the entire planet is under suspicion of having either rebellious leanings of one sort or another. The most minor of infractions bring the full force of Imperial 'Justice' on you."

"I understand, if it is any help, I made sure that no one noticed Ezriel and I coming in, and we came in through the back door."

"What is it you need?"

Ezriel and I need Imperial uniforms to get us into the Communications building. Once in, I will upload a data spike into the network."

"What will be on this data spike?"

"I am reactivating the Jedi sub-frequency to direct them to me, for training, asylum and eventually we hope, overthrowing Palpatine and Vader. I am also implanting some data worms to give me access to classified Imperial communications. That is to aid in the nascent rebellion that is forming a leg up in fighting the Empire."

"So there really is a rebellion forming?"

"Yes, the work that you did before the Fall and afterwards has helped the rebellion get on its feet. If you don't mind, I would like stay here and create the data spike and I will also code in back door access for you to anything classified for the Core Worlds. Don't worry; it should be a couple years before they find my handy work. I will also make sure that there is no way to trace anything back to you."

"No problem, go ahead and get started on your work. I will find a couple of uniforms. My suggestion is that the two of you go in during a shift change, easier to blend in at that time."

Naes looked at him and said, "Agreed." He then turned to Ezriel and said, "Let's get started."

**A couple hours later…**

Dex walked into the room and said, "Here are the uniforms as promised." He then walked to the opposite wall from the door and activated another door that slid into the wall, leading into a dimly lit tunnel. Dex walked over to the desk interface and typed in a few commands and said, "This will take you to the nearest exit to the communications center. Just follow the green arrows."

Naes looked at him and said, "Thanks so much Dex, if you ever need anything, ask either Bail Organa or Garm Bel Iblis, tell them that you are friends with me." He then picked up the data spike that he had just finished working on and said, "Come on Ezriel, we have a job to do." Ezriel entered the tunnel and Naes said, "Safe travels my friend." Naes stepped into the tunnel and the door shut behind him, leaving him and Ezriel alone in the tunnel to make their way to the comm center.


	13. Chapter 13

**The Love of a Jedi**

**Chapter Thirteen**

After nearly three months of hitting Separatist shipyards and commercial traffic and engaging in hit and run tactics, Naes felt it was time to return to Republic space. The crew needed some down time and the ships needed to spend some time in dock to bring them back up to full capacity. First the fleet stopped at Kuat to be reprovisioned and restocked, then after that they would stop at Naboo for a couple of weeks, show the flag, and patrol the sector. Naes had arranged for Astra and their son to take some time off and travel to Naboo for a vacation. She was due to arrive the next day on a transport from Coruscant to Naboo. As the fleet was entering the system, a chrome starship dropped out of hyperspace a short distance away. Naes knew that for Naboo the chrome starship represented the ruler of the planet, but he also knew that Padme owing to her popularity with the populace and gratitude for her years of public service was also allowed to fly a chrome starship.

Just then a fleet of Trade Federation starships jumped out of hyperspace and began firing on the chrome starship. Naes knew immediately that it had to be Nute Gunray up to his usual tricks again; he had never forgiven Padme for the role she played in his defeat during the Blockade and subsequent Battle of Naboo. In fact it had been his assassination attempts against her that had helped lead to the Battle of Geonosis about three months ago. "Shield's up, flank speed, bring weapons up to full power, we have to protect that skiff against the Trade Federation. Open a comm channel to both the lead Federation ship and the skiff. Federation ship disengage from your attack immediately, this is General Naes Nemelc of the Republic Cruiser Redoubt. The skiff is a Republic vessel and under our protection. If you do not break off immediately you will be fired upon. Republic skiff, please change course towards the Redoubt." Naes made a cut motion with his hand, and the channel was closed. "Is the skiff still being fired upon?"

"Yes sir."

"Weapons target and fire on the Federation ship; show them we mean business. Contact the rest of the fleet, tell them to prepare to fire on the other ships. Send a message to the skiff, telling them to prepare to dock with the Redoubt. Inform the hanger to prepare to receive the skiff." Just then the ship rocked, "That's it weapons destroy that Federation ship. Tell the rest of the fleet to take out the enemy fleet." A few minutes later the Trade Federation fleet was gone. "I am going to the hanger to greet our visitor."

A few minutes later, Naes was walking down the hall, towards the hanger when he saw Padme coming his way. "I was just on my way to say hello", he said; his hand automatically reaching for her when they met about halfway. Her hand reached for his as well and their fingers interlocked around each other as they walked hand in hand back toward the lift. Listening to each other, as each took turns talking; in the lift Naes looked deep into Padme's beautiful brown eyes. She was looking intently at him, as if whatever he had to say was the absolutely most important thing to her at that point in time. For a few brief moments, he got lost in her eyes. Finally he shook himself out of it, "Are you sure you are alright, I can have the ships healer take a look at you?"

"Thank you Naes, I am fine. Just a bit shook up."

"That is understandable; we were headed to Naboo anyway, so I will show you to your quarters and have my men begin repairing your ship. We should arrive in a couple of hours."

As they stepped out of the lift, he walked her to the door to her quarters, as the door opened, they slowly began to pull apart, as if they were both reluctant to let go of the other. Finally Padme stepped through the door enough that it closed behind her. Naes went down the hall to his quarters and called the bridge letting them know that he was in his quarters should he be needed. Then he went over to the mat on the floor and sat down on it and began to meditate. There was just something about Padme that could be soothing and intoxicating. Thankfully he would see Astra and his son tomorrow, if he was fortunate he would not see Padme anymore during this visit.

The week Naes spent with Astra and their son was exactly what he needed; the time also provided the crew with a chance at some much deserved R&R. He then spent the final week overseeing the last of the repairs from the little dust up on the outskirts of the system. Needless to say the Queen and her Councilors were all very thankful to Naes for saving Senator Amidala from the clutches of the Trade Federation. As the two weeks were winding down, Naes got a call from the Council, requesting Rhea and Ezriel to join them in a holoconference.

Once Rhea and Ezriel were online, Yoda began "Intelligence indicates that soon Count Dooku will once more be on his home world of Serrano. You three will head there immediately in unmarked transport. Infiltrate his estate and capture him and return him to Coruscant. It is strongly felt that if we can capture Dooku, swiftly can we end this war. That without Dooku the Separatist movement will fall apart."

"Understood Master Yoda, what of the Seventh Fleet? They were scheduled to patrol the Chommel Sector for the next few months."

"Captain Drallic lead the fleet he will in your place. Once return you have, meet you at Coruscant they will."

"We will find an unmarked small transport and head to Serrano immediately."

"Excellent, May the Force be with you."

Naes immediately went to a small starship dealer and procured an unmarked transport that would take his team to Serrano. He then took the ship to the Redoubt where he began working on the ship's transponder unit, altering it so that it would transmit a CIS identi code. While he was doing that, Rhea went to the Theed Market to find suitable civilian clothing to disguise them. He then told Captain Drallic and the Executive Officer of the Resolute what the plans were, for them to keep up the charade that Naes and Rhea were on the ship, but could not be disturbed. He and his team then left and headed for CIS territory and the planet of Serrano in their new transport which Naes had named "Maverick".

A few days later, Naes and his team landed on Serrano without incident; the three of them wearing the civilian clothes that Rhea had picked out for them. "First thing we need to do is reconnoiter the estate, find any potential weak spots or gaps in security. After that, I will slice into the Records Bureau and pull up the latest blueprints so that we can have an idea of the layout. Considering Dooku's high profile, he probably has a private landing pad at his estate; we will need to tap into the traffic control system to automatically alert us whenever a craft lands at his estate. Let's get to work, and remember we want to blend in and keep a low profile."

A couple days later the three of them were lounging in the Maverick when the traffic alert signal interrupted them, a craft was landing at the estate. Naes sliced into the estate's surveillance system and trained a scanner on the landing pad, sure enough there was Count Dooku striding off his starship. "OK, quick rundown on the plan, when it gets dark, Rhea and I will slip onto the estate, locate and incapacitate Dooku, when we will contact you Ezriel, after we contact you, you will take the Maverick to the estate, land on the pad where we will meet you, we will load Dooku onto the ship and make a beeline for Coruscant. Are there any questions or comments?" Rhea and Ezriel both shook their heads no. "OK, may the Force be with us."

As the sun was setting, Naes and Rhea were making their way through the wooded area to one side of Dooku's estate. One of the trees was close enough for a Jedi to use to jump over the wall and to the other side. Up the tree the two of them went, to the branch that was closest to the wall and big enough to support their weight. Naes went first, using the Force to propel him forward and give him extra balance; he ran across the branch and jumped at the last minute. Rhea followed him a few seconds later. They landed side by side on the other side of the wall. Coming up on the side entrance closest to the master bedroom, Rhea spoofed the sensor and Naes sliced the companel to let them in. They had to be careful, if they used the Force this close to Dooku, it would be like a warning siren going off. Thus, they had to use technology to spoof the sensors as they approached Dooku's suite.

They got to the door and it automatically slid aside, revealing Dooku calmly sitting at his desk flanked by two B2 battle droids. "Ahh, two wayward Jedi Knights, to what do I owe this great pleasure? Surely you know that the two of you combined cannot best me and take me in. I am more powerful than any Jedi. Or have you not heard already, I bested Master Kenobi and the supposed Chosen One Anakin Skywalker; plus fighting Master Yoda to a standstill." With that he let loose a blast of Force Lightening.

Naes calmly activated his saber and caught the lightening on his blade, where it dissipated. "You are under arrest Count Dooku for crimes against the galaxy."

Dooku calmly pressed a button on his desk, "In a few moments another ten battle droids will be coming for the two of you."

"Rhea, you deal with the battle droids, I will handle Dooku." Naes advanced toward Dooku, batting aside the blasts from the two droids flanking him, and when he got close enough he sliced them in half. "Now Dooku, surrender and I promise to go easy on you."

"Oh, I think not, and who might you be, so that I can contact the Jedi Temple and let them know not to be expecting you back."

"I am Naes Nemelc; you have killed enough Jedi and caused enough trouble for the galaxy. You will be brought in to face justice."

"Ahh, Naes Nemelc, I have heard of you, your reputation precedes you. It will be a great pleasure to dispose of you. You have set back the plans of my Master a few too many times." Dooku brought out his lightsaber with its rather unusual curved grip and activated it. He and Naes then engaged.

Naes was astounded at the skill and precision that Count Dooku displayed. He truly was a master of the _Makashi_ form, a form devoted almost exclusively to dueling; a very economical form that consisted of intricate balance and footwork and a minimal expenditure of energy. Naes could see why Kenobi and Skywalker had been bested, even if the two had worked together there was no guarantee that they would have succeeded. Dooku was probably the equal of Mace Windu and Master Yoda in lightsaber combat. Naes fell back; he turned to Rhea and said, "We need to fall back. To the hallway, we will find someplace downstairs to take him." They exited the room and in the hallway came the ten battle droids promised by Count Dooku, Naes and Rhea waded into them and cut them down. Dooku followed them into the hallway; Naes continued to keep him busy while backing down the hallway. "We will make our stand in the Grand Room." When they got to the stairwell, Naes and Rhea jumped down to the first landing, turned and jumped to the first floor.

Once they got to the Grand Room, Rhea asked "Why are we falling back to here?"

"We need room to maneuver. _Makashi_ is a form that works best in more enclosed spaces; it consists of precision footwork and blade work. Here in a more open area, I have room to put more power behind my attacks."

Just then Dooku appeared again, "Master Nemelc, you disappoint me, I expected better from someone of your reputation. And if you are Naes Nemelc, then your companion must be Rhea Sirgon quite the pair the two of you make."

Naes submerged himself in the Force and replied, "Don't worry Dooku; I am not going anywhere now." Then he and Rhea both advanced.

Dooku locked blades with Naes, and kicked Rhea, pushed Naes back and then picked Rhea up with the Force and threw her across the room. "Now that we have her out of the way, give it your best shot."

Naes let loose with a flurry of rapid strikes from _Vaaped_, then switched to the defensive form of _Soresu._ He could tell that Dooku was surprised by the _Vaaped_ move.

"I thought Master Windu was the only one who had mastered _Vaaped._"

"You will find that I am full of surprises," Naes replied. And then he let loose on Dooku with his trademark _Djem So. _Naes and Dooku went back and forth like that for several minutes. Naes had trained with an eye towards having the stamina for prolonged duels, and with his ability to switch back and forth from _Soresu _and _Djem So, _was throwing Count Dooku off his game. Eventually his advanced age was beginning to tell, he was beginning to slow down. Naes on the other hand was really just beginning to come into his own, plus with his phenomenal midichlorian count, it gave him virtually unheard of Force reserves. Dooku finally found an opening and Force Pushed Naes away.

Naes flew back and dropped his lightsaber, he looked up and saw Dooku raise his hand and fired another shot of Force Lightening. Naes had no time to call his lightsaber to him, rather he raised his arm and absorbed it and directed it in another direction. Dooku saw that and called out, "Impressive, but today is not your day, I must be gone now."

Naes saw him turn to leave and could not quite think of what to do to stop him when suddenly he extended his hand and shot out Force Lightening of his own. Dooku ducked behind a pillar at the last moment, turned and looked at Naes with an astonished look on his face and headed out of the mansion with a parting shot, "How interesting, a Jedi that can fire Force Lightening." Naes went over to check on Rhea, and called Ezriel.

"Be careful, you bumped your head pretty good."

"Where is Dooku? Did you get him?"

"No, we fought to standstill; he found an opening and Force Pushed me away and ran. Ezriel is on his way with the Maverick, it will only be a short period of time and I have a feeling all traffic off the planet will be halted." Naes picked up Rhea and carried her to the landing pad, where he set her down on her feet. A minute later, Ezriel landed the Maverick and lowered the ramp. Naes and Rhea hurried up, he shouting, "Raise the ramp and get us off of the planet." Ezriel was firing thrusters and began to maneuver the ship from the co-pilots seat. Naes slid into the pilot's seat and took over. He turned back to Rhea and told her to strap in, he turned back to facing the front and punched full power. The Maverick took off like a rocket, quickly leaving the planet behind. Right after applying full power, Naes activated the navicomputer and called up the course for Coruscant.

A few days later, they arrived on Coruscant; Naes is in the Council Chamber delivering his report. "Rhea and I snuck onto the estate, using technology we spoofed the sensors and bypassed the locks on the doors not once drawing on the Force so as not to give ourselves away. When we got to his room, he was waiting for us with two B2 battle droids. I disposed of them and advanced towards Dooku, while Rhea stood guard waiting for the other ten battle droids that he summoned. I was forced to fall back, choosing to make a stand in the Grand Room; we disposed of the other battle droids. Dooku disabled Rhea early in the duel, he and I fought to a standstill, he was beginning to show signs of fatigue. He found an opening and Force Pushed me and then used Force Lightening; I absorbed and redirected it away. But Dooku was too far away for me to catch up to and I did not want to lose him, so I used Force Lightening myself. I have examined myself and I had no darkness in me, my only goal was to slow him down long enough for me to catch him. At the last minute, he dodged the Force Lightening and proceeded to escape. I went to Rhea and called Ezriel for pick up. And we proceeded to Coruscant. I apologize for my failure to capture Count Dooku."

"No apology necessary Master Nemelc, a Sith Lord is Count Dooku, powerful in the Dark Side he is; devious he has become. Few Jedi could have fought him to a standstill. As for your use of Force Lightening, meditate upon that you will. Examine yourself further to make sure you harbor no darkness within yourself. Rejoin your fleet in a few days you will and continue your patrol."

"Thank you Master Yoda, I will meditate upon my actions and make a conscious effort to avoid repeating my mistakes." With that, Naes bowed his head and left the Council Chambers. He had a few days on Coruscant and intended to make the most of them; and headed for his and Astra's apartment.


	14. Chapter 14

**Love of a Jedi II**

**Chapter Fourteen**

In the six months since Naes had established his flight school and Grey Jedi Academy on Thule the number of pilots had increased exponentially. Garm had gotten lackluster support from Bail Organa and zero support from Mon Mothma. The thing that worried Naes was that the longer Palpatine was in power, the longer he could set in place contingency plans for the possibility that the Empire would fall. He also knew that darkness fed on darkness; the longer things remained dark, the thicker and greater the dark was. Fortunately, Garm had been able to find support among some of the fledgling scattered rebel cells in the wider galaxy, especially in the Outer Rim.

Despite their faults, the Jedi had tried to keep things balanced; that is until they became unbalanced themselves. What Garm did not realize was that once Naes assumed the Imperial throne, he was going to institute a few changes in regards to the relationship between the Galactic State and the reconstituted Jedi Order. Changes that would ensure the Jedi remained independent of the Galactic Senate, Judiciary, Military, and the Head of State whatever form that would take. He was also going to institute a few anti-corruption laws while he was in office to help drain the swamp of Coruscant; laws that would be straightforward and would require a supermajority to repeal.

The biggest weight on his mind at present was how to expand the fleet that was being gathered by Garm and Naes. Then Naes hit on an idea; first he had to convince the Bothan's to renounce their neutrality and support him against the Empire, which since he was going to take over the Empire shortly afterwards should not be difficult, especially if he promised to leave them alone after he took power. With the Bothan's on his side, he could make a quick hit on Mon Calamari taking out the token Imperial fleet there and freeing the Mon Cala, getting their shipyards in action to support the Corellian shipyards. After that he would hit the Wookie homeworld of Kashyyyk; freeing the planet and its inhabitants from Imperial slavery. With the support of the Bothan fleet, as well as additional shipyards and figuring that the Mon Cala and Wookies would be willing to assist in the fight against the Empire, especially with assurances that their independence would respected. With that, Naes keyed his terminal to speak to Thosk Fel'ya; he and Thosk had dealt with each other during the Clone Wars a couple years ago.

Thosk appeared on the screen; "Jedi Master Naes Nemelc you are still in the land of the living. It warms my heart to see you alive. Rumor said that all Jedi were dead."

"Admiral Fel'ya as you can see in my case the rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated; also do not bother trying to trace the transmission. My tracks are too well covered; after all I am still living."

The fur on Thosk rippled for a moment, indicating to a knowledgeable observer such as Naes that he was about to engage in some subterfuge. "You do me wrong Jedi Master; I would never do such a thing."

Naes leaned in closer to the screen, the trace signature to the side catching his eye, betraying that Fel'ya was indeed attempting to trace the transmission. With one hand Naes tapped a few keys to help muddy things even more. "Thosk, my apologies for assigning evil motives to you. I called with a proposition. Surely you have heard about the recent raids the past year concerning the re-appropriation of CIS ships."

"Yes, whoever has done so, has amassed a sizeable little fleet. Depending on the commander, the fleet could be quite dangerous to certain sectors. Do you have a lead on the fleet and its new owner?"

"I am the new owner. I have made certain alliances to partially man the fleet, and will soon make more alliances for fleet support and manning. I am calling because rumor says that the Fel'ya clan holds a lot of sway over the Bothan people, you especially since the Battle of Rodia."

"Yes, I hold some sway", the fur rippling just a touch.

Naes smiled, "I know that the Bothan's have an agreement with the Empire allowing your people a certain degree of autonomy. How long do you think Palpatine or Vader will allow that to continue?"

Thosk growled and said, "Why is that your concern?"

"We both know that eventually the Empire will come in full force and take your system, unless there is something to draw their attention. My proposition is this; your people were trusted and respected members of the Republic before the Clone Wars. During the Clone Wars the Republic respected your neutrality and assisted you in maintaining your independence. I have a plan, if you and your people assist me; the Bothan people can once again take their place in the Galactic State."

"What is it you ask of us?"

"Gather your forces, in a few weeks my fleet will strike Kuat and then pay a visit to Palpatine on Coruscant. What I ask of you is that you assist with the strike on Kuat and hold Kuat while I take my forces on to Coruscant. Can you do that? Once I am through, Bothawui will once more be fully integrated into the Galactic State. You will not need to support such a large fleet any longer, and will once more have open trade access with everyone else."

"I will see what I can do. How do I contact you?"

"Thosk for now I will contact you, safer that way."

"Understood honored warrior and Jedi Master."

After that, Naes cut the transmission, one thing he knew, Bothan's were a cunning and at times duplicitous people, but above all else they were pragmatic. And their spy network was second to none. Even Imperial Intelligence had things that it could learn from the Bothans.

Naes checked the time, just enough to check on the Force Sensitive training. Things were going well. A few Jedi had shown up, after listening to Naes, they had decided that they would stay and form the core of a New Order. Amongst those that were found of the Force Sensitives was an eighteen year old named Kylantha, Ezriel had taken quite an interest in the young trainee. Naes could see all the signs, despite growing up in the Temple and being taught that love and attachment were forbidden, a youngling was still a youngling. Not too surprising really, there were even rumors that Obi Wan had formed an attachment with Duchess Satine. Look at Naes and Anakin, both married women from Naboo. He checked his chrono and called Ezriel on his communicator.

"Ezriel, come here for a minute."

"Yes, Master what is it?"

"I need you and Tara to take the Knightfall and pick up the leaders of the Mon Calamari resistance and the leaders of the Wookie resistance and bring them here. We need to do some last minute coordination. Don't give them our location, also after you pick them up, be sure and swing by the shipyards and let them see our small fleet."

**A few days later…**

Naes was in his quarters meditating. Like most other quarters here on Antar, his was a small alcove dug into the rock with a bench and pad for a bed. To one side a stone pedestal that Naes would sit on when meditating. He happened to be sitting on the pedestal facing the door with his eyes closed. He could feel Ezriel's presence coming down the hall and buzz the door.

"Enter." Naes could feel Ezriel step in and paused, not sure if he should disturb Naes while he was meditating; the door closed behind him.

Ezriel stood there looking somewhat puzzled at his master. Naes was sitting cross-legged on the stone pedestal with his eyes closed. The strange thing was that he was actually floating a few centimeters above the pedestal and several small rocks scattered around the quarters were floating as well. Rarely had he seen his master looking so serene.

"Yes Ezriel, what can I do for you?"

Ezriel was flustered for a moment because he had not spoken and Naes had yet to open his eyes. "Master, I came to tell you that Admiral Raddus of the Mon Calamari and Chuundar of Kashyyyk have arrived. They both appeared to be rather impressed with our small fleet."

Naes lowered to the ground and opened his eyes as the other rocks lowered to the ground, "Thank you, I will be with them shortly."

A few minutes later Naes walked into the conference room; Admiral Raddus and Chuundar were both waiting on him. Naes took his seat at the head of the table, flanked on either side by Rhea and Ezriel. "Gentlebeings, I want to thank you for coming, I know both of you are busy with your own concerns. I have devised a way that we can all help each other and eventually help the entire galaxy."

Chuundar spoke "Your fleet is impressive. What do you need us for?"

"I need crews for the fleet. Two weeks after you are taken back to Kashyyyk and Mon Cala, my fleet with assistance from the Bothan fleet will strike and destroy the Imperial fleet blockading Kashyyyk. Afterwards we will leave a rearguard of some of the ships of my fleet to protect Kashyyyk crewed by Wookies. The rest of the fleet now fully crewed will proceed with the Bothans to destroy the Imperial presence in orbit of Mon Calamari."

Admiral Raddus spoke up next, "There is no way we can resist the Imperial firepower that they will bring down us if we do as you suggest. Eventually they will out produce us to build up enough firepower to wipe us all out."

"Admiral I have a dataspike planted in the Imperial Network, the fleet does not make a move without me knowing about it. At current production rates and all things being equal, it will take them at least nine months and probably closer to a full year to build up the fire power to take out both of you. Once we have Mon Calamari freed, we can proceed to getting your shipyards back up and running. What is not known is that I will also have the Corellian shipyards backing us up as well as a modicum of support from Alderaan."

Chuundar spoke again, "That is helpful. What are your ultimate goals?"

Naes smiled, "After the attack on Mon Calamari, we stop, catch our breath and set to work on repairing all of our ships that have been damaged. At that time, Corellia and Alderaan will assist with technical help and supplies. Once repaired we leave a rear guard at Mon Calamari and take everything available and hit the Kuat Shipyards and occupy them."

Raddus rubbed his chin and said, "That helps, but Jedi Master Nemelc, what is your endgame? How will this overthrow the Empire?"

Ezriel and Rhea looked at each other, both looking somewhat uncomfortable which was promptly picked up by their guests. Chuundar spoke up, "What is you are hiding from us? If you wish for our support then you must be honest with us."

Naes looked at both of his guests, "My goal is not to overthrow the Empire; it is to overthrow the Emperor and Vader and the Moff's. Rid the Empire of the graft and greed that infected it and the Republic before it; to do that I will assume power at first and enact a few laws and elect a new senate to power; senate that is not under the sway of a Sith Lord such as Palpatine."

Radduas fell back choking saying, "A Sith Lord in charge? Impossible! Sith are fairy tales told by parents to scare their children."

"Admiral, Sith are real. I am currently training on this planet a group of forty individuals specifically take out the Inquisitors, Dark Side Adepts, Vader, and Palpatine. After we hit Kuat, I am taking my forces and we are going to do a surgical strike on Coruscant. Make a clean sweep of any and all dark side users. With the forty being the core of a reconstituted Jedi Order; an order that is not beholden to the central government; an order with broad legal and law enforcement powers to do the will of the Force."

Chuundar spoke up, "My people had good relations with Grand Master Yoda. Many of my people have been Jedi over the millennia. Only with the return of the Sith to power can many of the events that occurred the night the Republic fell are best explained by Palpatine being a Sith Lord. Master Nemelc, what are your plans for the revived Jedi Order and Republic."

"First and foremost, Jedi that part and parcel of everyday life; diplomats, law enforcement, teachers, and some Jedi that live and stay at the Temple to be used as the Council and Chancellor agree upon. Those Jedi carrying the full weight of the Republic and Senate; being the eyes and ears of the Senate. For instance, if they see a Republic world with slavery, they have full authority to call in Republic peacekeepers to help resolve these problems. We are talking about a Republic with a more centralized form of government; instead of a loose republic, a federalist republic with instead of a Chancellor or Emperor either a President or a Prime Minister and ministerial departments.

Raddus and Chuundar both leaned back in their chairs and contemplated what Naes had told them. What he was describing was probably the best compromise for long term galactic stability. They looked at each other and then looked to Naes and both nodded. Raddus spoke, "Thank you Jedi Master Nemelc, we will do as you ask us and prepare our respective forces. You will also have our full support in the Senate when the time comes."

With that Naes stood up and said, "Gentlebeings, we have just over two weeks to prepare. My associates Ezriel and Tara will return you to your respective planets to get started. May the Force be with us."

As Ezriel and Tara led them back out, Rhea looked at Naes and said, "Do you really think that you can pull all of that off?"

Naes looked at her and said, "Actually I do, I feel that the Force is directing me along this path. Yes, I know Master Yoda council's waiting till the Skywalker twins are old enough to be trained. I cannot wait that long. Besides, Bail would prefer keeping Leia out of the rebellion that will inevitably form in a few years. If you will excuse me, I need to call Garm and Thosk Fel'ya and tell them the good news. Afterwards, I will review wrapping up the current pilot class and be available to consult with you as you wrap the Jedi Training and prepare for deployment."

"Sounds good."

Naes went to his office and contacted Garm Bel Iblis. "Garm, I just finished consulting with the Wookies and Mon Cala; they are on board. Prepare the fleet for deployment to the Oort Cloud of the Kashyyyk system in two weeks. I expect that the Bothans will provide some support as well. Get with Bail and Mon Mothma for any support that they wish to give."

"Not a problem Master Nemelc. I will have things ready on my end."

Naes cut that connection and then set up a rotating multi-modal and multi system self-routing call into Thosk Fel'ya.

"What is the good word Master Nemelc?"

"Presider Fel'ya, if you could loan me elements of the Bothan Fleet in two weeks, it would be much appreciated. Except instead of just Kuat, we wish for you to provide support at Kashyyyk in two weeks and then Mon Cala. Then we move onto Kuat."

"You ask for much Master Nemelc."

"True, but I have offered much to the Bothans; full reinstatement into the Republic, plus removal of the Imperial threat. So, will you help us or not? Remember, I can approach other Bothans for assistance, and when I win, it is they who will win and you who will lose."

Thosk growled and his fur rippled, "Blackmail!"

"No, I have learned to negotiate like a Bothan. Do I have your support?"

"Yes. Give me the coordinates and time and my fleet will assist."

"Thank you Thosk, as always a pleasure doing business with you."

Naes signed off and leaned back in his chair, for good or bad he and his group was committed.


	15. Chapter 15

**Love of a Jedi II**

**Chapter Fifteen**

Naes was standing on the bridge of his ship, leading a fleet that was currently skulking in the outskirts of the Kashyyyk system. He was waiting for the Bothan fleet to show up. In the past two weeks, he had wrapped up the final pilot class for Garm and his new students for the Balance of the Force were wrapping up their training. They were scattered across the fleet, training in converted cargo holds. Just then an alert chimed, Naes looked over at the display and could see that the Bothan fleet was arriving, Thosk Fel'ya was being discreet, coming in at sublight, so that the Imperial scanners would not pick them up as quickly.

Once the Bothan fleet came up alongside his, Naes opened a discreet ship to ship laser link. "Thosk, my old friend how good it is to see you after all these years. The clan is doing well?" Naes knew that with Bothan's the clan was everything. There were times the good of the clan might be put ahead of the good of the species as a whole.

"Absolutely. How strong is the opposition?"

"Our scouts have reported six Star Destroyers, five Star Cruisers, and two Carriers. Plus a sizable garrison on the surface."

"Hmm, this one will be tough. How do you propose we defeat them?"

"I have already sent a Jedi strike team to the surface, composed of twenty people to assist the Wookie's. Our two combined fleets will do a micro jump into the system and engage the Imperial fleet at point blank range. Before we jump, please have all of your fighters prepped for launch, so that as soon as we come out of hyperspace they can be launched."

"Give us ten minutes to prepare. How will we accomplish the pinpoint precision needed for the microjump?"

"If you would be kind enough to slave your hyperdrive with that of my ship, I will handle the navigating and precision needed." Naes could hear a rumble in Thosk Fel'ya's chest, knowing Bothan's as he did, he knew that Thosk was not happy about the proposal but he would accede to the request.

"That is not my first choice, but we will comply."

"Excellent Thosk, May the Force be with you."

**Ten Minutes Later…**

Naes looked at his combined fleet, he outnumbered this Imperial contingent two to one, the problem was that reinforcements would be difficult to come by. "All units prepare for jump in three, two, one." As soon as the last word was out of his mouth, Naes pushed the button to engage the combined fleet jump sequence and no sooner than he did that and he was pulling back on the jump lever to disengage the jump. In a matter of seconds his fleet had travelled nearly seven and a half light hours. The ships reverted back to real space with the Imperial fleet directly in front of them at point blank range. Naes immediately gave the orders, "All ships open fire with main batteries and launch all fighters."

He then keyed on a separate frequency and said, "Rhea, this is Naes, Operation Storm is a go." With that last order, he set in motion the Wookie assault on the Imperial garrison. With that the Wookie resistance began a frontal assault on the Imperial garrison; joined by Rhea and twenty of his new Jedi recruits. Naes had chosen the recruits with Force talents geared for combat and for those that had the most talent for wielding a lightsaber to assist the Wookie's on the ground.

Naes once more turned his attention to battle before him; though he could feel Rhea and Tara on the ground leading their troops and Ezriel on the adjacent bridge overseeing the starfighter assault. One thing that he had taught his students was a teaching that had fallen by the wayside, a Jedi Battlemeld. Basically it improved the reaction time of his troops, improved their morale, and enhanced their fervor to accomplish the mission objectives. It also enhanced the Force communication between all of the Force users. During their years fighting together in the Clone Wars, Naes, Rhea and Ezriel had unwittingly developed a nascent form of the Battlemeld.

Naes could see from his readouts and by looking at the battle that one Star Destroyer was losing power and would need to fall back; Naes focused his attention on that Star Destroyer and flicked the fingers and wrist on his right hand, causing the Star Destroyer to suddenly veer to the side and crash into a Star Cruiser. Naes seeing the proximity to another Star Cruiser gave a small motion with his hand and pushed the damaged Star Cruiser into another one. He then put the Battlemeld to use and sent out to the commanders of the three damaged ships that they absolutely had to abandon ship in order to save their lives. Soon escape pods were jettisoning from all three ships. Naes then sent orders for boarding teams to claim the ships. He then focused his attention on one of the Star Carriers, this would be more difficult, but he succeeded in convincing its crew to abandon ship as well. With that accomplished, he repositioned his ship for orbital bombardment of the Imperial garrison.

The Battlemeld worked, eventually Naes fleet either captured or destroyed the enemy ships and the garrison on the ground surrendered unconditionally. Soon Wookie technicians would be shuttling up to assist in repairing the damage Naes fleet had incurred as well as repairing the prize ships. Crews would also be trained and shuttled in from throughout the galaxy. And according to plan, not one single Imperial left the system; they were all either killed or captured. Chuundar was on his way up to meet with Naes, along with Thosk, Rhea, Ezriel, Tara, and Garm Bel Iblis via holo.

"Gentlemen and Ladies, we have accomplished our mission objectives. Kashyyyk has been freed, we have captured five additional ships, including two Star Destroyers and two Star Cruisers and a Star Carrier. With the additional fighters that are being sent to us, that should give us a full complement of fighters for our captured prizes. The combined assault fleet suffered minor damage, the battle was a complete surprise and a total rout." Nodding to Thosk, Chuundar, and Garm; Naes continued, "We have also confirmed that a Jedi Battlemeld does tip the balance in a battle. Look at the results; our forces started off relatively even at the start of the battle. We routed the Imperial task force."

Thosk looked around and asked, "And what is your next objective Master Nemelc?"

"We will take the week we need to repair the prize ships and crew them and then we will leave Two Star Cruisers and a Star Destroyer here and launch our attack against the slightly smaller Imperial task force in orbit of Mon Calamari. Our goal at Mon Cala is to capture as many ships as possible. As such we will take as many Wookie volunteers to act as boarding parties."

Garm spoke, "Our scouts and spies are reporting that there are four Star Destroyers and five Star Cruisers in the Mon Cala system. At any one time, three Imperial ships are also docked at the Mon Cala shipyards, Raddus assures me that he already has in place insurgents at the shipyards ready to seize them and any ships undergoing maintenance."

Naes spoke, "Excellent, we will leave the shipyards to the Mon Cala and will concentrate on the task force."

**A week later…**

Naes and his fleet jumped into the Mon Calamari system, "Launch fighters, all ships locate your target and fire Ion Cannons. Begin prepping Assault Shuttles for launch." He then contacted Ezriel on the Comm, "Ezriel, this is Naes, I am turning over command of the fleet to you. Epic and I will infiltrate one of the Star Destroyers as planned. I will keep you informed, keep an eye on the ships in the yards, the Mon Cala might need help."

Naes shuttle landed in the primary docking bay of the Star Destroyer; "Rhea, this is Naes, I have landed on my Destroyer how goes the rest?"

Rhea answered, "I am on final approach for my Destroyer and Tara just landed on her Destroyer. The remaining Destroyer and five Cruisers will be have twenty Force Users spread between them."

"That is a 10-4, Naes out." Naes motioned to the squad leader and he pressed a button suddenly from underneath each shuttle dropped a combination of B1 and B2 battle droids; all reprogrammed to follow Naes and his troopers orders. He looked to his squad leader, "You take your men and droids to the reactor control room. Epic and I will take my men and droids to the bridge. We will have additional shuttles docking at various parts of the ship to provide confusion and cover for us."

"Aye sir, heading out."

Naes looked at his men and droids and said, "Follow me." With that they left the docking bay and took a parallel path as the other squad, with the exception that the other squad was heading to Reactor Control. Naes and his men were heading to the Bridge, located near the very top of the tower of the Star Destroyer. They would have to traverse over half of the length of the ship. Naes always enjoyed a good challenge.

Before embarking, Naes had his slicer droid jack into a computer terminal and issue conflicting orders to the Stormtroopers stationed aboard ship. That would help scatter resistance and help give Naes and his troops the time needed to reach their objectives with little interference. The good news couldn't last for long, soon enough their scanners told them that a squad of Stormtroopers were around the corner and down a ways; the problem is that they would be spotted before they could get to the bank of lifts. Naes looked to his second in command and said, "We don't have time for this, take your men and the droids and head for the bridge. Leave three men here to help cover me."

"Are you sure about that sir?"

"Go, I have this. I will clear a path for you, there should be a bank of lifts thirty meters to the port side on the next corridor." Naes consulted his wrist comp and went on to say, "You want to head directly to Level 198 Section Gold 10. We will clear a path for you. Epic, go with them and provide cover."

"Aye sir, see you there."

Naes stepped out with his lightsaber lit and called, "Hey Bucket Brigade, looking for me?"

The Stormtroopers looked at him and immediately said, "Get him."

Naes looked and said, "Be sure and take notes." With that he advanced on the troopers with a determined stride. Soon enough the air around him filled with blaster bolts. Without breaking stride he motioned with his free hand and with the Force grabbed a hold of nearly half of the troopers guns and yanked them free and chucked them to the side. At the same time he was swatting aside blaster bolts with his lightsaber. Calling out to the troopers he said, "Get out of my way, do not interfere any more or you will pay the price." A couple of the troopers laughed and Naes said, "OK, have it your way."

With the Force he picked one up and threw him against the ceiling of the corridor, immediately followed by grabbing two more and throwing them against the side of corridor. He could sense that the squad was beginning to waver, half were disarmed. None of their blasters had even come close to touching him and in seconds he had incapacitated three of them. Naes did not relish what he was about to do, but these men were given ample opportunity to run; they had seen a portion of his abilities. With that, he grabbed the nearest one and yanked him towards himself and swept his saber across the trooper. His armor clattered on the deck at Naes feet. The remaining men paused and saw what had just happened to their fellow soldier and they threw their blasters down and ran away from Naes.

About that time, he reached the cross corridor that was their goal to begin with, Naes could hear his squad running up behind him. He looked and said, "I guess it didn't take as long as I had expected. Come on, that was just one squad." With that Naes headed towards the lifts.

Epic looked at the defeated troopers and then over at Naes, trying to process what exactly it was that she had seen. She looked at the second in command, "What just happened?"

"I think he just took out a squad of troops without even breaking a sweat. Did you notice that not a single blast made it past him?"

"Yeah, I saw that too. Let's go. I don't want to keep him waiting."

Just then the lift appeared and they were able to take the lift directly to the bridge.

Naes spoke, "When we get to the bridge, everyone fan out but watch your fire. No need to needlessly damage the delicate equipment."

"Aye Sir."

The lift opened to reveal the bridge of a Star Destroyer. The ship's captain looked at the lift and saw the motley bunch stepping off and immediately asked, "What is the meaning of this intrusion?"

Naes strode right towards him grabbed the captain with the Force and drug him to himself and said, "You are being relieved of duty." With that, Naes tapped the man's forehead and the captain collapsed. Naes looked at around at the bridge and asked, "Who is next?"

Immediately the entire bridge crew shocked at how easily their captain had been incapacitated raised their hands started stepping away from their consoles. "Put binders on them and stick them in the corner and have the droids watch over them." Naes pulled out his comlink, "Ezriel, how goes the operation?"

"We just seized the shipyards no other vessels have been seized as of now."

"I just seized my Star Destroyer. Give the others a little bit of time. Remember, I had a hand in the early design concepts for this class."

"Plus most are not as skilled as you are with a lightsaber."

Naes chuckled, "Well I didn't want to say that, but you know. Naes out."

Naes then keyed to check on his second squad, "Naes to Squad two, report."

"Squad two, we have just secured the reactor room."

"Excellent." Naes flipped the setting on his comlink to the group setting for the squads taking this ship, "This is Group Leader to all boarding squads. Switch on your air filters, we will gas the ship in five minutes."

He looked to one of the crewmen on the lower bridge level and said, "Release the gas shipwide except here on the bridge and in the reactor room."

"Aye sir." With that, the gas was released, knocking out most of the Imperials on the ship.

"Gentlemen, send a squad of our droids here to assist in cleanup downstairs. This ship is secured."

An hour later, Naes was in the main conference room with Thosk Fel'ya, Raddus, Chuundar, Garm Bel Iblis via holo, and Ezriel and Rhea. "Gentlebeings, we have secured the Mon Cala shipyards and freed Kashyyyk. Our next task once we reorganize make any needed repairs is to hit the Kuat shipyards and quickly after that Coruscant. Until today we were able to keep the existence of a group of Force user's secret, that changed today. All of us users drew and used the Force fairly liberally, that just sent up a flare to Palpatine and Vader. Fortunately we are far enough away that they only have a general idea where we are."

Garm looked around and said, "I have already decided that as soon as you begin the assault on Kuat, that Corellia will remove the Imperial presence from our planet as well. That reduces the available shipyards by three, three major yards."

Naes looked around and said, "We are approaching the end game people, be prepared and let's do our assignments to the best of our abilities." He then looked at Rhea and Ezriel and said, "For you guys that means continue training our students. Luminous, Epic, Carus and others have talent to be helpful in the upcoming missions. May the Force be with us."


	16. Chapter 16

**Love of a Jedi II**

**Chapter Sixteen**

It had been nearly two weeks since Naes had freed the Mon Cala shipyards. While freeing the Mon Cala shipyards he found a former Jedi Padawan that had miraculously escaped Order 66, close to the same age as Ezriel, but in need of finishing instruction. Naes named him Darth Frater and took him on as a new Padawan. He was also coordinating with Garm Bel Iblis on a regular basis for the simultaneous assault on Kuat and Corellia declaring independence and ousting Imperial interlopers. Naes was taking some extra time to get a few extra ships ready for the assault. When he hit the Mon Cala shipyards he was able to count on the local population for support. When he hit the KDY it was doubtful he could count on local help. Kuat since the founding of the Empire had shown staunch loyalty for Palpatine, and he reciprocated that by giving KDY lucrative contracts for multiple Imperial Projects.

In order to tilt the odds as much into his favor, Naes was having additional droids constructed at Corellia. Garm was kind enough to convert a couple of the droid factories on Corellia to construct battle droids. He had also relocated all of the advanced Force trainees to here to receive intensified instruction in lightsaber combat and basic combat techniques. He had also converted one of the Mon Cala shipyard sections to producing droid fighters. In another three days everything would be as ready as possible. Personally Naes would rather hit the yards at Fonder, but he knew that you could not attack Coruscant without first taking out KDY.

Rhea walked into his office, "Everything is on schedule, our spies indicate that there are twenty Star Destroyers docked and undergoing repair along with thirty cruisers."

"How many vessels patrolling in system?"

"Seven Destroyers, we got lucky; Death Squadron just left KDY headed back for Coruscant."

"You mean Vader's squadron?"

"Yes, Vader just left KDY headed for Coruscant, at the Emperor's orders."

"How long is Vader supposed to remain at Coruscant?"

"At least another month, the emperor wants him there for the Empire Day festivities."

"You know, that is correct, in almost a month it is Empire Day, everyone and their brother will be descending on Coruscant to celebrate." Naes looked at Rhea and said, "Get you a new dress, how would you like to attend Empire Day at Coruscant?"

Rhea looked at Naes and said, "Are you crazy, we barely are ready for KDY much less Coruscant."

"With the proper planning we can do both. Prepare everything, we are leaving for KDY in twelve hours."

"I really think that we should attend Empire Day. Think about it Rhea, everyone and their brother will be headed to Coruscant. The perfect time for about a hundred people to take a holiday and overthrow the Empire."

"Yes, and security will be extra tight."

"And with the right ident papers we can get in unnoticed." Naes paused for a minute, "I have an idea how to get into KDY unnoticed and without a needless firefight before we even dock."

"What is it?"

"Tell me, how many ships do we have ready to go right now?"

"Leaving behind a standard one destroyer and two cruisers, we will have eleven destroyers, five cruisers and two carriers available for KDY."

"Then what is holding us back?"

"Nothing really. I was trying to give us a bit more time to produce fighters."

"With my plan, we won't need them. We use three destroyers and two cruisers loaded with battle droids and fifty of our Force Users with faked clearance codes for all to dock together at one of the KDY military terminals, infiltrate the yard and within a couple of hours it is hours. We send the rest of the ships after the Imperial patrol ship to disable and liberate again using our standard liberation tactics using the other fifty Force users and remaining battle droids. I am sure that the Wookies, Bothans, Mon Cala and Garm would gladly assist us in taking the other KDY sections. We could do that easily in under three weeks, leaving a week to prepare and infiltrate Coruscant for Empire Day and freeing the galaxy."

"It could be done. I will go and get started."

"Good, I will coordinate with our allies and apprise them of our plans."

**The Next Day…**

After discussing his idea with his allies, they rapidly made arrangements for a mixed group of Wookies, Bothans, Mon Cala, and Corellians to infiltrate the other two military sections of the Kuat Drive Yards, to assist Naes pulled half of the users from his contingent and half from the boarding party contingent being sent to seize the patrolling squadron. In fact, he assigned Ezriel and Luminous to assist the Wookies and Bothans in seizing their section, Rhea was in charge of the fleet group; Tara was in charge of the third group made up of Mon Cala and Corellians. Naes took the bulk of the battledroids and humans and Mon Cala.

Due to it looking suspicious that three different squadrons was coming in suddenly; Naes sliced into the Imperial Network and entered in doctored order sets for Tara and Ezriel's ships to come in about two hours apart from different vectors to dock for repair and resupply. Such was a normal occurrence and would not arouse suspicions. Naes fleet would come in between the two, purportedly needing emergency docking after narrowly escaping a fleet of Separatist holdouts. Even after nearly three years, there were a few holdouts, most had been destroyed. Actually Naes had co-opted the last holdouts to assist him and then proceeded to hide their existence until now, when he could use their existence for emergency docking and claim responsibility for destroying the last pocket resistance to the Empire.

Everything worked wonders, Tara and her ships docked at the first military array, the slicer droid shut down the internal comms for that section; making it look like a normal malfunction. The slicer droid also uploaded a nasty virus that Naes had created just for this occasion. Within minutes the yard sensors would be showing ghosts everywhere and the internal sensors would be in the middle of a cascade failure, at least to the command section that is the way it would appear. Tara and her infiltrators would have eyes and ears everywhere.

Naes and his group came in with the requisite appearance of battle damage and requested immediate emergency docking. He was sent to the far side from Tara to section three. By the time he docked, the internal sensors as well as the internal comms for Sections two and three began to fail as well, per the virus. Thirty minutes later Ezriel and his ships came in for their scheduled docking.

As predicted, with the troubles at the station and extra arrivals, the fleet moved in closer to the station to provide backup support. Just as the fleet moved in closer, Ezriel sent a coded microburst with the fleets position to Rhea, her fleet performed a point blank jump right on top of the protectorate fleet and threw the entire shipyard and star system into chaos. Rhea began jamming all outgoing Imperial frequencies.

Naes and Frater and the rest of his troops debarked from his Star Destroyer and immediately headed for the command gallery of his section. Naes directed his battledroids to spread out and create distractions for the stormtrooper corps. That brought to a very manageable level the amount of troopers between him and the command section. As he was jogging down the hall towards the lift that would take him to command Naes with Frater jogging alongside him said, 'Feel the Force around you. We live in harmony with the Force, we strive to become one with the Force, watch and reflect how I submerge myself into the Force. Oh and watch my back for anything that comes in from the sides after I pass by the hallway openings. Our objective is the lift at the end of the corridor."

Naes submerged himself in the Force and started running for the lift, soon enough two squads of troopers filled the hallway in front of him. Naes did not break stride, his saber appeared in his hand and began to hum. He began deflecting blaster bolts back at the troopers with his saber in his right hand; and with his left hand Force Grabbed several blasters and yanked them away. He then started to pull troopers to him and throwing them around the corridor like they were ragdolls. By the time he reached the main body there were only six troopers left out of sixteen. Naes mowed right through those six as if they were not even there. He never slowed down or let up. When he got to the lift he stopped and placed his saber back where it belonged.

Frater was jogging to keep up and still watch the side corridors for any problems. He had never seen a display of swordsmanship and Force attunement. To defend from blasters and yank blasters and people at the same time was extremely unusual; only true masters of the Force could accomplish such things. Just then the lift opened, to reveal another squad of troopers. Naes calmly looked at them and raised his right hand and shot lightening at the squad; knocking them out. They cleared out the lift and took it to the command level.

The lift doors opened and Naes stepped out first with Frater right behind him, as expected there were eight officers manning the various consoles. Like a skilled conductor at the orchestra, using both hands Naes picked the officers up like they were dolls and pulled them away from the consoles before they could react and send out a distress call. Frater and the handful of troops immediately took over the various stations. Tara and her troops had just seized control of section one. Naes directed her to send troops to section four and seize it as well. He sent Frater and troops to section four from his side as well. That would put the section in a classic pincer move.

While that was happening and Tara was consolidating her gains and Ezriel was making his way to the control room in section two, Naes used his slicer program to send the troops in section two on wild goose chases. He then focused on the display where Rhea was facing the Imperial fleet, Naes hit on an idea. He called up the internal security feed of the lead star destroyer's hyper matter reactor and focused on that part of the ship. First he focused on the lead officer and pushed him away from his console. That worked, so Naes just wholesale pushed all the occupants away from their consoles and in some cases off of the catwalks. He then focused on the control panels and began shutting off power to weapons and shields.

Rhea immediately took advantage of the opening and fired ion torpedoes at the ship; knocking it completely offline. Naes then began working his way through the fleet that Rhea was facing. Soon enough Rhea was able to send parties to the disabled star destroyers and claim them for spoil as well. Naes and the others sent some of their excess troops to help claim the ships. After a hectic twenty four hours, Naes sent a message to his conspirators reminding them to take time to rest, because they were leaving in five days for Coruscant. Naes also told them that he was going offline for deep meditation in the Force. He needed to find out why the Force was pushing him to dethrone Palpatine.

Once he was in a meditative trance Naes saw the largest mobile space battle station destroy Alderaan, including Bail Organa. Shortly afterwards he saw an assault against the battle station and its destruction. His perspective jumped forward a few years in time, a second even larger battle station in mid construction operational enough to destroy capital ships in a single shot. A duel on the station between Vader and presumably his son judging by his appearance the duel overseen by the Emperor and Vader turning on the Palpatine throwing the emperor down a reactor shaft. Shortly after that the galaxy was free once more. Naes felt he could relax and then he saw, a start at a new Jedi Order and a New Republic. Both failing and falling after some thirty years. An even greater darkness and the laugh of the Emperor. Backed by countless star destroyers and the threat of unending galaxy wide darkness barely averted.

Naes then understood, if the Emperor was not stopped soon, he would lay contingency plans and have in place the ability to return from his own destruction. Naes knew that the Dark Side was a pathway to such unnatural abilities. The cost was going to be fifty years of chaos and darkness. A republic that would be corrupted from within and as well as with out. Not just weapons capable of destroying a planet, but a weapon capable of destroying entire star systems. No the Jedi had no business running the galaxy, but they needed more independence from the galactic governments. For now, the Empire would do, but without the rulership of Palpatine. Eventually Naes would work to create a strong independent judicial free of Senate or Executive influence.

Naes now knew why the Force was spurring him to remove the Emperor now, but he was still disturbed by the prophecy of the Chosen One. It implied that Anakin would bring balance to the Force, presumably by destroying Palpatine. He knew from a previous vision that if he had been with the Jedi when they went to remove Palpatine originally that they would probably have succeeded. Naes had to try and figure out a way to appeal to Vader and get him to turn back to the light.

He then hit on an idea, before he took on the Emperor, he had to show Anakin the Force visions Naes had seen over the years. Starting with what could have been that dark night three years ago at the end of the Clone Wars. The vision of Naes and Anakin serving together on the Jedi Council and finally the vision of fifty plus years of darkness before Palpatine was truly defeated and the cost to Anakin's descendants. He would bring Ezriel and Frater with him to act as a backstop. Naes did not want to overly tire himself out before facing the Emperor. First Naes had to call a council of war, including Bail Organa and Mon Mothma. Naes would also need to discuss things with Master Yoda and Obi Wan as well.

He tapped his communicator and contacted Rhea, "Rhea, call a council of war with Thosk Fel'ya, Raddus, Chuundar, Garm Bel Iblis and insist with Garm that Mon Mothma and Bail Organa come in person as well. I have something that I have to show them and it can only be shown in person. Tell them it is a matter of life and death not just for them but galactic darkness as well."

"Sure thing Naes."

After that, Naes contacted Obi Wan and Yoda, "Masters, I know that before the two of you have opposed my intent and desire to overthrow the Emperor now and have in fact counselled waiting for a more opportune time, when we could gather the necessary strength to completely overthrow the Empire. Masters, I have just had a vision. I meditated on the Force to try and figure out why it is pushing me to this endgame. I ask of you, open your minds to me and let me share with you what I have seen." With that Naes opened his mind to Yoda and Obi Wan and allowed them to see the next fifty years for the galaxy.

Obi Wan was white as a sheet, Yoda looked pensive and then concerned. Meditate on this I must, for now Master Nemelc continue as you are. Concerning is this vision.

"Master Yoda, there is one other thing, should I defeat the Emperor and Vader, I want you and Master Kenobi to return to Coruscant to help re-establish the Jedi Order, a more balanced order that is not quite so dogmatic. And for the two of you act as Counsellors to me as I reorganize the Empire back to a Republic."

"Think on that we will as well Master Nemelc."

"I will be meeting with the heads of the rebels along with Senators Organa and Mothma; showing them what I have seen. I will also let them know that I have reached out to the two of you for help in the reconstruction effort."

"Agreeable that is Master Nemelc."

**The Next Day…**

"Gentlebeings, thank you for coming here to meet. I especially want to welcome Bail Organa and Mon Mothma, I know that the two of you oppose my more direct methods. That you believe we are moving too fast. The only thing that I can tell you is that I have been feeling the nudge of the Force pushing me along this path; yesterday I did a deep meditation on the Force to try and figure out why. The Force sent me a vision telling me why. It is extremely difficult for a Jedi to share such things with non-Jedi, and sharing directly could be mentally invasive for everyone involved. I will play a sequence that I created last night that very nearly matches what I saw. I have shared this with Yoda and Master Kenobi. They are meditating even now on their course of action and direction for me. They have agreed to help in reconstruction should we succeed in overthrowing Palpatine."

With that Naes showed the group his recreation of what he had seen. Everyone present was visibly shaken, most notably Bail Organa when he saw the toll it would take, Alderaan and on Leia. He looked at Mon Mothma, the two having known each other for years could communicate silently with just a look. Mothma very subtly nodded in agreement.

Bail spoke up and said, "Master Nemelc it is with great reluctance that Mon Mothma and I agree to support you, but after witnessing what you have seen, we have no choice. In order to save the galaxy untold suffering and save untold billions of lives we must act now. Tell us what you need from us and we will do our best to help you."

"I need help in infiltrating Coruscant on Empire Day next week. The Force is telling me that is the best time to make the attempt. I have fifty Force Users that are trained well enough with sabers to take out the Dark Side adepts and the Inquisitors."

"Done."


	17. Chapter 17

**Love of a Jedi II**

**Chapter Seventeen**

A few days after his meeting with his co-conspirators Naes was at the controls of the Maverick, Rhea and Tara at the controls of the Knightfall. Shortly after the meeting concluded Naes contacted Dex, instead of smuggling people off-planet, Naes was smuggling a few hundred people onto the planet. Approximately forty of his Force sensitive followers. As well as assorted Mon Cala, Wookies, and Bothans. In two days at the height of the celebrations he and his group would make their move. Naes revised plan to hopefully bring balance to the Force was to convince Vader to return to the Light. He was neglecting to inform Yoda or Obi Wan about that part of the plan. If he could turn Vader, then he and Vader would confront Palpatine. If Vader did not turn, then he would be dealt with and Naes would confront Palpatine alone.

Currently Naes was slicing into Imperial records for the latest whereabouts of the Inquisitors. It was just as he had hoped, the majority were on Coruscant. Palpatine would want as many sycophants near him during this most auspicious of occasions. Two teams were offworld; Kenobi had agreed to leave Tattooine and take a small group of Force trainees and Naes Ace card was Ahsoka, when he sent out Rhea to find the Force Sensitives for training, Ahsoka came to him in secret and offered her services to him. Bail had just approached her about helping him, but she opted for Naes and Garm. Naes could understand that, in spite of their differences he and Anakin tended to be action first questions later. It was only the last year before the destruction of the Jedi Order that Naes began to see the value not rushing headlong into a situation. Ahsoka had under her command a second group; Naes would send Obi Wan and Ahsoka after the two groups. He appreciated having an additional individual that would qualify for Knighthood.

In order to keep Palpatine and Vader either one from suspecting anything, Naes had his group of Force sensitives to scatter across the planet, if they grouped together they would become a beacon of light that would easy to find on Coruscant. Next Naes began reviewing the latest layout of the Imperial Palace. Palpatine was almost finished in moving the last of his dark side artifacts into the Temple. To celebrate, he was hosting the party at the site of the former Jedi Temple. Naes decided that he needed to do some personal recon of the site. He wanted to make sure that a couple of the secret rooms not shown on any planning documents was still there. That was fine, the secret entrances from the tunnel network should be accessible.

**Two Days Later…**

Everything was in order, Obi Wan and Ahsoka both had neutralized the Inquisitor teams they were sent to deal with. His Forty were making their way to the Temple, for the few hours they would be in close proximity Naes had taught them the basics for hiding ones Force Presence. The students would not be able to keep it up for long, but they didn't have to. Naes did not feel comfortable in formal clothing that he was wearing, fortunately his jumpsuit was on underneath. To his relief the secret rooms had remained undiscovered. After dealing with Vader, Naes would go to the Council Chambers Which had been converted to Palpatine's Throne Room and begin broadcasting himself in the Force. Palpatine would have no choice but to come and deal with Naes himself. Palpatine's ego would not permit anything else.

**That evening…**

Tonight was a toss of all the Sabacc Cubes. No matter what happened this evening, Naes life would change irrevocably. He figured that might be for the better, he did not enjoy hiding and was not very good at being quiet. It took someone with the patience of Master Salguod to deal with him. Frater and Ezriel were standing by in a side room that was unknown by anyone except the Jedi. Naes had five droids setup to fire up to two hundred tranq darts. Should only take a couple to knock out Vader, which gave Naes a lot of padding for dealing with resistance and the Force. He figured it would take the three of them to deal with Vader.

The celebration was going well. The celebrations for tomorrow on Empire Day would be even bigger. Naes teams were out dealing with the Dark Side Adepts and Inquisitors. Finally Vader made his mandatory appearance. Naes saw a few people go up and attempt to engage him in conversation. He mostly spoke to military officers; doing his best to studiously avoid any of the other Imperial bureaucrats or the Imperial Senators. Looking at it, Naes could see a lot of Anakin in Vader's actions. Even after the fall to darkness, similar in temperament; that could be helpful in a few minutes.

He kept himself on the opposite side of the room from Vader, and he kept his Force presence tamped down as well. During that time, the Emperor made his appearance and left shortly after, it was expected of him to appear at multiple officially sanctioned parties; especially by the upper members of Imperial hierarchy. Even with both Sith Lords in the same room, they did not seem to notice Naes. That meant that his disguise and efforts to disappear into the Force were working.

After a couple of hours, things began to wind down a little, Naes could feel Vader's patience wearing thin and his attention wondering, knowing Vader, that meant that he would be leaving in a few minutes. Time to spring the trap. He tapped his comm, alerting Ezriel and Frater to be ready. He then walked past Vader just to his side, and as he was passing him Naes relaxed his thoughts for just a moment and gave off a Force flare. Sure enough, Vader's head snapped up and snapped over to look at Naes. There was a large crowd separating them. He paused and looked at Vader and smiled and walked right through the door. Once in the hallway he quickened his pace and headed for the sideroom.

Vader felt the flash in the Force and immediately recognized it as belonging to Naes Nemelc. Vader had still not forgotten his embarrassment at the hands of Naes Nemelc two years ago. To show up here on Coruscant, after all the trouble he had been fomenting throughout the galaxy. Vader himself suspected Naes as being the mastermind behind all the thefts that had taken place in about the past year. It would require someone with his daring and flare for the unorthodox. He was going to end him tonight right here and now, and present his lifeless body to the Emperor. He spun on his heel after Naes immediately started growling "Make way, Imperial business."

Vader strode out the door and into the hall. This was in a little used section of the Temple, only someone that was familiar with the Temple would have gone this way, and Naes was certainly familiar with the Temple. Vader stopped and searched the Force for any hint of which way his query went. With the exception of taking out Obi Wan, defeating Naes Nemelc would be a great day for the Empire. Vader was still galled he had escaped Coruscant the night the Order fell. He felt the briefest tinge of the Force to his right. Vader followed the tendril without even thinking it might be a trap. Any other time a Jedi had tried to trap him, he had bested them. There was no reason this time would be any different. Vader was perfectly willing to commit to wholesale destruction in order to defeat any Jedi.

He found himself walking down a little used corridor. He stopped, he felt the briefest of Force flashes; Naes was leading him that he was certain of now. That was fine, this Jedi would pay like all the others before him. Vader stopped, he knew from his knowledge of the Temple that there was a hidden room behind this wall section. Vader stood and motioned for the door to open.

Standing in a pool of light with his hands clasped behind his back his opponent Naes Nemelc, stood and calmly said, "Anakin I must speak with you about balancing the Force." Vader looked at him and said, "That name no longer has any meaning for me."

Naes looked at him and sighed and said, "I was afraid that you were going to do this the hard way. Men, go." With that the trap sprang, two tranq dart cannons began firing at Vader. To prevent Vader from stopping them, Naes reached out and grabbed both of Vader's arms with the Force and pushed them apart. At the same time Ezriel and Frater were grabbing ahold of him as well with the Force. They were able to hold him just long enough for a couple of the tranq darts to knock him out.

Naes immediately stopped the cannons and hurried over to Vader and placed Force cuffs around his wrists and immediately hacked into the suit systems and reduced the oxygen feed. While he was in there he decided to take a look at the suit's programming. Immediately he noticed purposeful glitches in the electronics. Even the oxygen supply was set very low, everything on the suit was purposely set to keep Vader enslaved and on a short leash. Naes reset the parameters to stop glitching and was able to add a little extra insulation to the capacitors and electronics. Give Naes a couple of hours and a fully equipped workshop and that suit would be twice as efficient and half as cumbersome. He made notes of his changes and documented where in the system those changes were.

While he was doing that Ezriel was setting up a display so that Naes could show Vader what he had shown Bail and the others. Naes was not about to trust a Sith Lord inside his head. He motioned for Ezriel and Frater to step back in the shadows and tapped a couple of things on his com and increased the oxygen supply to wake Vader, who he had the forethought to strap into a chair, better able to communicate with him if he was relatively comfortable. He could hear him coming around, the masked face looked at him and asked, "What do you want with me Naes?"

"I wanted to have a civilized conversation, but knowing your lack of civility for anything Jedi related, I took precautions. I know you, you have to be like the rest of us, horrified by the death and destruction in the galaxy. I recently had a Force Vision on a possible future for the galaxy. Let me show you the highlights, I created this small film for some non-Force individuals to explain to them why I was felt impelled by the Force to start taking action." With that Naes showed Vader the projection for the next forty-five years. The superweapons, the knowledge that he had a son that he would sacrifice himself in order to save him and defeat the Emperor in the process. The plans within plans of Palpatine the wholesale destruction of entire planets and star systems. The vengeance Palpatine would wreak on Anakin's bloodline, the complete hatred and lack of respect Palpatine had for Skywalker's.

After showing him all of those things, Naes looked at the mask and said, "You think that you are lost and have no choice but serve Palpatine, you are wrong. I am here right now offering you a way out. It is not too late; repent now and help us, bring balance to the Force now, not later when it is temporary and Palpatine is much stronger. He cannot have all of his plans in place yet. I will also tell you something else, Palpatine has purposely kept your suit inefficient and cumbersome. While you were incapacitated, I checked a few things and your suit should not be as cumbersome and ponderous. I will let you out of your chair and let you see for yourself. Though you will forgive me for not releasing your hands just yet."

Naes punched a button and the restraints released Vader, he stood up and twisted his body in place, stretched, took a few steps. "I feel more like my old self. I was told it was impossible."

"Give me a few hours and a decent workshop and I could really improve things. There are structural mistakes purposely made in the suit to disrupt and weaken you. Again the lack of respect that Palpatine has for you."

"You make a convincing argument Naes, but I am not convinced."

"Yes, I figured that might be the case. I have prepared for your viewing pleasure two visions that I have had over the years." With that Naes showed Vader the vision he had of the two of them on the Jedi Council together acting like friends, their son's often partnered together on missions. Their daughters working together as up and coming Knights. The clincher, Padme serving as Chancellor of the Republic; leading it into a new golden age of peace because the threat of the Sith had been removed once and for all.

Next Naes showed to Vader the vision of how the original confrontation with Palpatine should have gone, with Naes, Anakin and Mace all three working together and Anakin finishing up and destroying Palpatine. "Anakin, you let Palpatine corrupt you, walk back into the light, yes Padme is dead, you will have to live with that for the rest of your existence. You have to see how Palpatine has used you and even now you are his slave. If he could replace you right now, he would. You don't owe him any sort of loyalty. You have a son and daughter that need you."

"What is to stop me from taking them as my own to raise as I see fit?"

"Simple, do you think Palpatine would allow the children of Anakin to live? Their existence is a threat to his rule. You could hide them, but how long before Palpatine finds them and destroys them? We both know that his reach is too great, and will only grow greater as time progresses."

"You saw the future where we do not stop Palpatine, your children succeed temporarily but at great cost, premature deaths for both of them. Lives with greater pain and sadness than is needed. We stop Palpatine tonight, they can grow up to become balanced Force Users. I am not resurrecting the Jedi Order, I am working to bring forth an Order that is more balanced and that serves the Force. Help me do that. I will need your help to help unite the galaxy." Naes reached out in the Force to get a feel for what was going on inside the mind of the man before him, was this going to be Anakin or Vader. Finally the thinnest of margins the light won out; for at least now. The person in front of him was Anakin Skywalker. Naes motioned with the Force and the stun cuffs on Anakin fell to the ground.

He raised his hands and rubbed his wrists, to Naes that was such a human reaction considering the wrists like the hands were artificial. He fixed Naes with his gaze and said, "Thank you. So what is your plan for defeating Palpatine?"

"Easy, you and I and Rhea will go up to the throne room and I will broadcast my presence in the Force, with his ego he will have to come face me. Whereupon the three of us will face him with possible assistance from Ezriel and Frater who will otherwise guard the door and my other initiates are out dealing with the Inquisitors and Dark Side adepts here on Coruscant. I have visited Tython and Thule and Korriban and received some training from Revan. So hopefully I can face any darkside attacks he may use. You are an integral part, you have to strike him down in order to bring balance to the Force, I can't do it, if I do it things will probably remain out of balance. You are my equal in this endeavor going forward."

**A few minutes later…**

Naes was standing in the middle of the throne room, radiating in the Force. A beacon of bright light. He wanted Palpatine to come and he knew that kind of radiance in the light would only serve to antagonize Palpatine. Vader and Rhea were concealed separate corners and Ezriel and Frater were hiding on either side of the door. All four of them had concealed their presences in the Force.

Sure enough, Palpatine came through the door wearing a larger scowl on his face than normal, hatred and darkness flowing off of him. "Naes Nemelc, I heard you had survived. How foolish of you to appear before me tonight." Palpatine reached into his pocket as he walked towards Naes; pulling out a comlink. He pushed a button on one side and spoke into it and said "Lord Vader report to the throne room immediately and be sure and bring the Inquisitors with you."

"That is a futile attempt your highness, my Order of Balance has already dealt with your Inquisitors and Dark Side adepts. As for Vader, he left but please let me introduce you to my good friends and colleagues, Anakin Skywalker and Rhea Sirgon." Rhea and Anakin stepped out of their shadowy corners to reveal themselves.

"Lord Vader, it is treason then."

"I am Anakin once more, the treason is allowing you to destroy the Jedi Order and destroy the Republic from within. I am going to rectify those mistakes today."

At once Palpatine raised his arms and shot lightening at Anakin and Rhea, knocking both of them down. Naes immediately took his saber and started running towards Palpatine. Palpatine then turned his attention to Naes, "Such a rush to meet your doom."

"No, a rush to defeat a great evil."

Palpatine shot lightening at Naes with both arms, Naes stopped and raised his free hand up and raised and lit his lightsaber to absorb the lightening. Naes immediately began channeling the lightening he was absorbing with his hand and then he tipped his saber over to absorb both streams. As soon as he did that, he blasted Palpatine with a lightening pulse, all the energy Naes had absorbed with a little extra. Palpatine got knocked up against the wall and Naes continued to advance toward him. He could hear Rhea and Vader both getting up.

"That was a doozy. I don't want to repeat it again." Rhea said as she lit her saber.

"Why did that not hurt as much, half my circuits should be fried from what I got hit with?" Anakin asked.

Naes replied, "While you were out I added some capacitors and extra insulation to protect against lightening. I know that is Palpatine's go to gig." Naes could see Ezriel and Frater both edging towards Palpatine, thinking to strike while he was preoccupied. Naes gave the slightest shake of his head and both stopped.

"How smart of your Palawan's, I was about to kill them."

"You will find that they are better trained than you believe." He motioned for Palpatine to come towards him and Anakin and Rhea and said, "Now Your Highness, why don't you come over this way and we can end the galaxy's misery."

With that Palpatine let out an animalistic roar, it chilled Naes to his bones how evil it was. Until that moment it had only been a roar he had heard in his visions. Naes and his two compatriots advanced on Palpatine. Without even thinking about it, Naes and Anakin stepped forward back to back in Djem So stances. They had dueled against each other and together at the Temple before the fall enough times to know the other's moves. Rhea stepped over to the outskirts of Naes side; she knew that this would fall primarily on Naes and Anakin.

Palpatine launched himself through the air towards his opponents; Naes and Anakin broke and swung around to face each other their swords crossed with Palpatine's in the middle. A grin broke out across Naes face, he knew that his life had been building to this moment. He could feel the same thing coming off of Anakin. The joy of combat against a powerful opponent, saving the galaxy in the process. Palpatine snarled, the hint of a grin on his face as well.

Palpatine jumped back, Force Pushed Naes and Anakin both and then he shot lightening at Anakin. "You will pay for your betrayal soon enough Vader, but first I must deal with your comrade."

He rasped through the mask, the breathing equipment damaged from the latest lightning strike against him, "I am Anakin."

Naes picked himself up and leapt towards Palpatine, his saber in an overhead grip. He landed right in front of the Emperor and brought his saber down full force. Palpatine barely deflected, the blow rattling him. With that Naes and Palpatine began trading saber blows. Rhea took that as a cue to go and help Anakin as did Ezriel. Naes switched into his combination of Djem So and Vaaped; letting the darkness flow through him and back against Palpatine. He slashed and blocked and jabbed. Neither giving an inch, both evenly matched. The throne room began to shake from the strength both were pouring into their duel. Frater, Ezriel and Rhea could only watch, and lend Naes strength through the Force, while Anakin worked to recover from that last lightning strike.

Then Naes felt the Force to direct him towards Anakin and the group; Rhea, Ezriel and Frater jumped towards Palpatine distracting him. He cackled and Force Pushed them away, but at the same time Naes gave Palpatine a Force Push back. He stumbled and turned and fell on Anakin's glowing red blade. Master and Apprentice impaling each other with their own sabers.

Naes ran to Anakin, and he said "Naes, thank you for bringing me back into the light. Please teach my children the ways of the Force and of Balance." His chest and breathing rattled and he whispered with a questioning voice, "Qui Gon?" And with that, his armor fell flat as he became one with the Force.

Naes stood up and looked at his comrades, "Thank you for your help. Now we have the hard part, rebuilding the Republic and the Order, we are going back to our original name on Tython, Je'dai." Just past his friends he saw two glowing forms, Anakin restored and Qui Gon; both looking at him with a pleased look on their faces. He would discuss what he saw with Obi Wan and Yoda.

**A Year Later…**

Naes stepped off his transport from Coruscant to Ossus. The Je'dai still kept a presence on Coruscant, it was the political center of the galaxy and the Je'dai wanted to make sure that their interests were represented. But primary training occurred on Ossus now. He smiled, waiting for him was his wife Astra, a more caring and understanding woman he did not now. Standing with her were their children; Naes Jr 8 years old, Amalie 6 years old, as well as Luke and Leia both just turning 4 years old. After defeating Palpatine, Naes with Astra moved stars and badgered Bail Organa and Owen Lars. Naes was bound and determined to keep his word to Anakin, and he felt the best way was for him and Astra to raise the children themselves. Both men eventually relented; with help from Obi Wan and Yoda.

The Empire after a year of transition had given way to a revamped Republic with multiple new laws in place curbing the power that commercial and banking interests could accrue. Laws breaking up monopolies, and creating a stronger Executive Branch Separate from the Senate with a President elected at large from the galaxy. The Je'dai still acted as mediators for the Republic but there were more Je'dai Sentinels, scattered throughout the Republic, living their lives concentrating on balancing the Force with non-Force practices.

These primarily served as law enforcement on their planets. Overseen by a Sentinals Council here on Ossus, these Sentinals were required to submit weekly reports and to spend two weeks a year on Ossus for Force meditation to remain balanced. Naes himself had become the Grand Master, with Yoda still on the Council providing his wisdom and insight. Other than the Sentinals and acting as mediators, the Je'dai were rebuilding themselves and working with the Republic to develop a new relationship that would keep Je'dai servants of the Force and not servants of the Republic. He was happy and at peace with himself and the galaxy was at peace and healing. There was still much work to be done undoing Palpatine's evil, but the Je'dai and Republic were up to the task.

That evening, Naes was working was working in his office at home and Luke and Leia came running in, "Uncle Naes can you tell us about our mommy and daddy?"

"Of course. First you need to know that both of your parents were two of the bravest people I knew."

**The End**


End file.
